Yield for buckets 5/16” vs 7/16”

[Bruce L]

Maybe Dr. Tim can chime in here,might have done a study? This year we went to 5/16 metal spiles for our buckets,mostly for the health of the trees. Very poor year to make a comparison,but most of the larger trees didn’t put out much sap this year,will trees produce as much sap through a 5/16” spile into a bucket as a 7/16” spile?

[ecolbeck]

I don't believe their is a significant difference in output between the two sizes. My understanding is that a quart of syrup per tap is average when using buckets, regardless of the tap size. Many producers have not had a great season and you may simply be among those for whom the weather was not cooperative this year.

[DrTimPerkins]

Very little or no real difference in yield. Very much reduced staining with 5/16" spouts.

https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1003smalldiameterspoutevaluation/

https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m0607smallvstraditionalspout/

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[Pdiamond]

i used to use 7/16 spiles on buckets and now use 5/16 spiles. I haven't noticed any difference.

[Sugar Bear]

I used to make syrup 45 years ago with the 7/16 or even bigger metal taps.

6 years ago I started making syrup again using the 5/16 taps on tubing runs to barrels and drops to buckets.

In my little opinion the advent of the 5/16 tap is the best thing that ever happened to the maple sugaring industry.

Although I did bring a 4 membrane home built RO system into the equation for the first time this year and that was pretty mind blowing too.

But the 5/16 still trumps everything that I have seen, from big time high tech to little time steam pansy like me.

Anything bigger then 5/16 should now be considered for bonehead of the year award. And I will add that six years ago when I first saw and started using the 5/16 taps it was difficult for me to soften my head up.

[Swingpure]

Today I ran into two members of the mapletrader forum and I was asking rookie questions and telling them a little bit of what I was doing. One of them asked me about what size spiles I had ordered and I told them 7/16”. Right away they advised me to drop down to 5/16” or even a 1/4 for the health of the tree. I will be getting the 5/16” ones.