Proper taphole depth is .......6 to 8 inches?

[TapTapTap]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KSrZwDVMGx7m6d7UA

I'm not sure how old these taps holes are. My sugarbush is pretty old and has been tapped as far back as the 40s that I know about.

[Andy VT]

Awesome history!
I assume you know the tapholes were normal depth and the tree has since grown.
But finding old tapholes in a log just never gets old. Really cool.

[bigschuss]

Great picture. Thanks for sharing.

[DrTimPerkins]

From the staining, it appears that paraformaldehyde might have been used.

[Pdiamond]

Dr. Perkins, not trying to sound dumb here, but what and why did they use to use paraformaldehyde in the tap holes? I have never heard of this before

[Andy VT]

Check out page 6-21 of the Producers Manual on paraformaldehyde. It was indeed a thing! A pellet in the taphole was believed to prolong the season and was a common 20th century practice. Pretty interesting! One of my neighbors recalls doing it 40+ years ago, which is where I learned of it, and who also told me it is long since illegal. I'm pretty sure the farm I grew up next to didn't do it in the early 80's because I don't remember them putting anything in the hole except a spile... but probably did sometime before that. Illegal now, and possibly never had a positive net benefit anyway even without considering the health concerns (my interpretation of what the manual says).

[DrTimPerkins]

Paraformaldehyde (PFA) was used in the maple industry as a taphole sanitizer. It was a small, white pellet about the size of an aspirin or slightly larger. It prevented microbes from initiating the "taphole drying" problem and resulted in higher sap yields. It actually had EPA approval. The side effect was that it also resulted in a MUCH larger internal wound (stain) and could lead to rot issues. It was used primarily from the 1960s to the 1980s. Was banned first in VT, then the US, then Canada, although there has been bootleg production and use in some areas up until about 10 yrs ago. Because of the fact it was banned, the EPA registration expired in 1989 and the Canadian registration in 1990, and because of that, it became illegal. It is quite easy to test sap and syrup for PFA, and there are really good alternatives to spout/tubing sanitation these days, so it really is a non-issue at this point, but you can still find trees with these huge stain columns in them when you cut them down. Interestingly the banning was initiated by the maple industry, not the government, and not due to health of consumers, but due to the health of the tree. Relatively little ends up in syrup as most is volatilized off during boiling -- probably pickled a bunch of maple producers over the years (formaldehyde is a known carcinogen). Good thing most sugarhouses at the time were drafty.

Good article by Matt Thomas at: https://maplesyruphistory.com/2019/08/10/the-history-of-paraformaldehyde-use-in-the-maple-syrup-industry/

You can still find maple syrup on the internet for sale that touts the fact that "no formaldehyde" or "no paraformaldehyde" is used -- I just found a couple within 30 seconds of doing a Google Search. Doing that is illegal and should be stopped. I used to do a search once a month and write to people doing that to get them to stop, but haven't done it for about 10 yrs. It's kind of like saying "no benzene" or "no uranium" is in our syrup, which implies that other folks syrup does have those things.

[Pdiamond]

Andy, my manual should be arriving any day now.

[Pdiamond]

Thank you for the explanation, Dr. Perkins.

[TapTapTap]

My biggest take away is that the long term impact of tapping is more significant than we appreciate from looking at the outside of a tree. We need to think long term of 20 or more years of tapping. I'm on high vacuum so I've already been reducing the number of taps per tree to just one tap in trees smaller than 24 inches.

And, on my bigger trees with 2 taps I try to locate the tap holes at the maximum separation to achieve the greatest benefit, typically going below the lateral on one side. My thinking is that you shouldn't bother with the second tap if you're not maximizing the increase in sap volume.

Ken

[DrTimPerkins]

My biggest take away is that the long term impact of tapping is more significant than we appreciate from looking at the outside of a tree. We need to think long term of 20 or more years of tapping. I'm on high vacuum so I've already been reducing the number of taps per tree to just one tap in trees smaller than 24 inches.

And, on my bigger trees with 2 taps I try to locate the tap holes at the maximum separation to achieve the greatest benefit, typically going below the lateral on one side. My thinking is that you shouldn't bother with the second tap if you're not maximizing the increase in sap volume.

Ken

Well put Ken.