Tapping below lateral lines

[Gone Maple]

I have hurd of taping below lateral lines to find new wood for tree health.
I talked to a guy in my area and they taped all there tap below there lateral lines this year and they got a lot more sap that they ever had. And I also found one other guy that did the same and had a grate turn out as well.
I am looking for a net Intel on this is it worth it, what kind of taps are being used, is it good to do, how do you ste the tap and drop, example.
Hope for the info

[DrTimPerkins]

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/ Under the "Recent Publications" column way to the right...second article down from top.

You won't get MORE sap than you would in the normal tapping zone if you hit good wood, but you will have a lower probability of hitting brown wood (former tapping scars). Since brown wood doesn't transmit sap, sap yield is (way) lower when you hit brown wood. So if you are typically hitting brown wood when tapping (due to former tapping history), then tapping below the lateral makes sense. When you do this, you want to be sure that you have GOOD vacuum and EXCELLENT sanitation. Also good for spout outlet (tubing connector) to sweep downward and then curve up to the lateral line. This will reduce backflow somewhat by creating a small air gap. CV spouts are a good idea as well to reduce backflow in this situation.

[Gone Maple]

From what I was told both of these producers are not doing this because they are looking for new wood. It was perpussly done this way. They both pulled good sap all season even when the rest of us had slowed down or just had stoped. I am wondering if there had Ben any research on this and what was the out come. Dose it keep the hole from drying up. I use a 5/16 Polly carb from leader and new bit ever 1500 taps. I just don't get why when drilled about the same time the sap yeald a lot more sap at the end of the season. I am also running 28 - 28.5 in all season.

[Super Sapper]

Did they install new drops or use CV spouts? If they did either of these and you did not that could be the difference.

[DrTimPerkins]

From what I was told both of these producers are not doing this because they are looking for new wood. It was perpussly done this way.

Tapping below the lateral would have no added benefit all other things being equal. The only reason to do this is to increase the size of the tapping band and to decrease the possibility of hitting previously stained wood (which produces little sap).