how high can you tap?

[David Wayne]

I have a neighbour that has offered me his woods to tap. He would prefer tubing to save a mess in the fields and drop is not enough to flow to a tank.
I am hobby so not looking at investing in vaccume, He ask if the trees can be tapped high to get fall? So what is the answer? I told him I didnt know.

Thanks
David

[tcross]

I have some trees i have to tapp 10-12' high! not ideal, but better than nothing! i still get decent production from them... not as much as if you tapped them at breast height, but you will still get sap.

[DrTimPerkins]

i still get decent production from them... not as much as if you tapped them at breast height, but you will still get sap.

Correct. On gravity, for a 100' tall tree, you'd get ~42 psi of stem pressure at bucket height. If you tap 10' higher than that, you'll lose 10%, so will get about 38 psi of stem pressure, with a approximately corresponding loss of sap yield.

[eagle lake sugar]

I usually have 3-4 ft. of snow depth in my woods. I try to have my mainlines at least 4' off the ground and around 5 trees on a lateral. By the time you get to the 5th tree, to maintain slope to the mainline I'm often 9-10 ft. off the ground. On vacuum they still put out sap.

[DrTimPerkins]

On vacuum they still put out sap.

Yes, vacuum is very different in that there is less impact of tapping high or low. Different flow dynamics.

[David Wayne]

Thanks for the answers, I have been busy catching up from four days of heavy run.

David