Large Sliver Maple

[Mboeselager]

I have a a few very very large silver maples that appear to be quite old. It would take 3 or 4 people to stretch their arms around the tree. I have tried to tap these trees in the past and have had NO luck. Is there any advice or tapping strategy for these large trees to get this thing to produce?

[littleTapper]

Vacuum.

Vac completely changed how well my silvers (about 60 taps) run. Buckets = inconsistent, low or no flow. Vac = gushers. I've tried one big silver 3 times with buckets and got nothing every time. Some are just like that.

[Ocelotsden]

It's funny how different trees in different spots are so different. I have one big silver, about 3 foot diameter, right in my front yard and it's always been by far my biggest producer. It outperforms every one of my sugar maples by far. On a good day it will produce over 7 gallons per day on 2 taps and very high sugar content. When I tested it when I tapped it a week and a half ago it was 3.7 Brix then dropped to 3.4 after a few days. It filled two 5 gallon Water bottles in just 24 hours since yesterday, with one overflowing.

[littleTapper]

It's funny how different trees in different spots are so different. I have one big silver, about 3 foot diameter, right in my front yard and it's always been by far my biggest producer. It outperforms every one of my sugar maples by far. On a good day it will produce over 7 gallons per day on 2 taps and very high sugar content. When I tested it when I tapped it a week and a half ago it was 3.7 Brix then dropped to 3.4 after a few days. It filled two 5 gallon Water bottles in just 24 hours since yesterday, with one overflowing.

That's awesome! I tap a few big silvers like that too. Can't get tubing to them, but they'll overflow a 5 gallon bucket in the blink of an eye. Wish all of them were like that :)