What is the smallest maple you have tapped?

[ir3333]

Do you tap 10" - 12" maples?
If yes, how much would they yield on a good day?

[DrTimPerkins]

Depends....you collecting with gravity or vacuum? Are the crowns in the canopy (dominant or co-dominant) or are they intermediate or suppressed? Are the trees crowded or do they have space to grow?

We tap trees down to 9" dbh with 5/16" spouts as long as they are healthy and have room to grow with no other serious stresses. Never more than 1 tap. If you're using 7/16" spouts, wait until trees are 12" dbh.

https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m0218treesize/

[buckeye gold]

I'll add one more variable. If I have a damaged tree or one I know is going to be culled within the next few years or will never make a good tree it get's tapped even down to 6". Once I tap these I usually cut them down within a year or two. If they are good straight healthy trees I stay within the 10"> rule.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We shoot for 10”. I’m sure we may have tapped an 8” or 9” one in the past.

[Pdiamond]

I stay with the 10" rule also, unless I am in line with my tubing then I will bypass those trees and go to the 12" inchers, just my personal preference. I use all 5/16 taps.

[ir3333]

Thanks guys.I have been by passing those 10 inchers with small crowns thinking they would
not produce well.This is just a hobby for me and i have only been tapping the bigger trees. I gather
everything on foot so it would be easy to do the small ones as i walk by.

[Pdiamond]

Go ahead and put one 5/16 or 1/4 inch tap in them.

[maple flats]

I tapped a 5" tree back in 2005 thinking I'd be culling it out the next summer. That tree got tapped every year for about 12 years before I cut it for firewood. It gave sap every year but I never knew how much nor what the sugar % was. I tapped first in a pattern around the tree at 2 heights above the lateral, then 2 years below the lateral before I cut it down. I never hit brown wood when I tapped. The first 4 years I tapped with the 3' drop straight up, essentially, then I tapped 6 years just a few inches above the lateral, the last 2 were below the lateral, about 2'. The lines were all on vacuum.
This being said, I do not endorse tapping under 10".