To tap or not to tap...

[Riverdale]

I have about 300 taps on line that have been hit by the caterpillars the past two years. It's not a permanent system aside from the mainline; we didn't tap last year in part to 3 ft. of snow in Feb., and also because of the caterpillar damage. The trees were defoliated this year, but were able to come back with much smaller leaves. As of now, I'm planning to let this bush sit for another year because I'm more concerned about the future health of these trees than what I may get out of them this year. I just wanted to see what you folks on here thought about this decision, if anyone has tapped a bush that was hit by those buggers and what the results were of doing so.

[ennismaple]

I think you'd be smart to not tap. If the caterpillars completely defoliated the trees they would have used a lot of their sugar reserves to grow new leaves in the summer. The additional stress of tapping them would not be good for them.

[mountainvan]

I tapped trees that for two years were damaged by caterpillars, some partially some completely defoliated. I cut down on the # of taps /tree, but that was it. The sugar % was 1.5% both years, a full 1% below normal. All of the trees are still alive and doing quite well after last year with no caterpillars.

[Riverdale]

Thanks for your input....here's to a good season!