Sugar Bush Not Supplying Sap

[MiMappleMan]

Hello All,

This is my fourth season tapping, upgrading this year from around 60 taps to 110. That expansion was due to acquiring a good grouping of trees, approximately 50 trees. This was the first year tapping this group of trees, and unfortunately from all 50 trees, only less than 100 gallons of sap. My normal trees have produced exceptionally good this year, so I am confused as to why this grouping of trees have produced basically nothing.

Do some trees just not produce sap? What could be up with this bush? When tapped, the sap was flowing well from the trees so I am confused what could cause them to just stop. The buds are all tight still, the only thing different about this location is that it has been flooded until about two weeks ago.

Thanks

[Russell Lampron]

Are they red maples? Reds are very finicky on buckets and gravity tubing. Some will run and some won't. The flooding could have had an effect on it too. Trees with wet feet generally don't do well. It could be a cold bush too which means that runs will start later and stop sooner than in a warm bush.

[spud]

Trees that are in wet spots generally do not run well. Several years ago I tapped 300 trees alone side a beaver pond in a very wet area. I was lucky to get a few gallons of low sugar sap from each one. I waisted my money on pipe for that.

Spud

[Cedar Eater]

Sugar maples hate wet feet, so those are most likely red or silver maples. Since the buds are still small and tight, I'm guessing reds. I have pretty much only reds and they need either natural or mechanical vacuum to get decent flows. They are just plain finicky without suction, especially when they are in a swamp, and the sap is usually lower in sugar percentage. The good news is that red maples make really good tasting syrup.