Re tapping?

[Jim Foster]

My question…. Here in SW Nebraska we had a great week of temps around Jan 28. I tapped and the weather went south and cold. Bitter cold between 30 to -18. Very few days above freezing. Will my trees have started sealing up the tap holes or am I good for another month? I’m using plastic tubing to buckets on the ground. Box Elder trees as it’s the only tree here to tap. Or would I be better off pulling my spiles and re tapping the next fractional drill bit size up and re inserting my spiles? My spiles are copper electrical fittings with tape wrapped around them in a manner that it forms a cone. Works very well and have had great success in the past. Around here I have absolutely no one to ask as no one else does this. -18 this morning and 60 degrees Sunday! The future forecast shows great temps. HELP!

[Super Sapper]

They may still run some when it warms up. Retapping is not recommended as you get very little improvement for the additional damage to the tree. What size hole do you drill for your taps? Are there other trees that could be tapped if they do not run?

[DRoseum]

Taphole closing has more to do with microbial activity associated with warm temperatures. A cold spell typically won't overly negatively effect tap holes. They should run fine when it warms back up.

As stated by Super Sapper, re-tapping is not recommended at all. Lots of studies have shown the very minimal positive yield effects along with major increase of sap wood staining (e.g., damage, scarring) of the tree. This has long term negative yield effects. I believe retapping was shown to increase the effected staining area by 2x or more.

[Gord]

I have done similar in the past. Caught and early run, and then had a freeze up. I'm mostly on reds, and when the freeze broke, and it warmed back up, most of my trees went back to running strong.

If I can add on to this thread, I also have a tapping question. In general, using buckets, is it better to tap when the sap is running? In other words, the temperatures in the north east have been single digits and teens, and not getting above freezing for weeks. There is a warm up coming next week with perfect temperature fluctuations. Is it ok to tap a day or two before the warm up, or wait till it starts running? Again, I'm on buckets, and still learning.

[Scm]

I've pulled my taps and drilled 1/4" deeper and had some good runs at the end of the season. UVMPRC also studied drilling a new tap hole a couple inches above/below the current one. I dont remember the results of that. I'm sure the Dr will chime in.

[ennismaple]

I believe those same studies showed a substantial increase in the stain column and in conclusion did not recommend reaming or re-tapping the same tree.

[nhdog]

this will answer your questions.
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/vt20earlytap/

[Jim Foster]

3/8” tap holes.

[ADK_XJ]

3/8” tap holes. I would definitely not re-tap holes that large or any tap holes for that matter...you might consider moving to a 5/16" health spot. They heal much faster, create much less dead wood, and have similar yield.

[Jim Foster]

this will answer your questions.
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/vt20earlytap/

****! Really hurts the tree. I wish they would have done tests on holes reamed but not drilled deeper.

[nhdog]

i think if you take a look you will find that they did use on one test using a 1/4'' tap and then latter redrilled it with a 5/6''.

[littleTapper]

I wouldn't treat results compiled from tests on northeastern sugar maples as the same as what would happen to central plains boxelders. The trees grow so differently. Anyone that knows boxelders know they grow like weeds and are a bit tough to kill. Even if you caused a bit more wood staining with a reamed hole, they'd grow new sapwood way outward of that by the time you'd need to use that column/area again. I've cut down boxelders that have shown >1" DBH of new growth in several years.

But, I'm assuming and we know what that means :)

I also have never seen anyone managing a forest for boxelder production either.

[HowardR]

I have collars (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VQXJBM9) on my drill bits so that I, and those helping me, can't tap more than 1.5" deep so as to do the minimum harm to the trees.

I've had good experience with drill bit collars. There's a little screw that fixes them in place on the drill bits. I used to use 5/16 tubing on my bits to control the depth, but the tubing kept creeping up the bit. They are mostly used by people using a drill press who want to drill holes that don't go all the way through, but only go down to a specific depth.

I'm not using them with augur bits that have a screw on the tip to pull the bit down into the hole, I use them with standard drill bits usually used for metal. I can keep turning the bit after the collar hits the trunk without any pull into the hole. In fact, any additional turning helps clean the sawdust out of the hole. Here's one of my drills with a collar on its 5/16 bit:

https://www.aphomeschoolers.com/media/uploads/economics/drillcollar.jpg

[maple flats]

HowardR, interesting, but Proctor Research center says 1.75-2" is th best, and that's in past the bark. If you tap a spot with 1/4" thick bark, you're tapping 1.25" deep, if the bark is 1/2" thick you only get 1" into the tree.
When you use a drill bit collar I suggest you leave the collar back 2.25", if you tap older trees and 2.125" if you tap mostly 10-12" trees.

[1arch]

I found drilling without a stopper evacuate the chips better.

[DrTimPerkins]

****! Really hurts the tree. I wish they would have done tests on holes reamed but not drilled deeper.

Reaming slightly wider does very little in terms of additional sap production, although results of any type of taphole rejuvenation strategy tend to be highly variable and strongly dependent upon the weather you get immediately after the treatment.

The full study is available at https://mapleresearch.org/pub/wound0621/

There are always possible variations that can be added to any research project. The problem is that each time you add a variable (factor), you generally have to double the number of trees in the sample size. We had 80 trees in that work, so adding a "ream to the same depth" factor would have meant adding an additional 80 trees. Considering that each of the chambers to collect the sap alone cost over $1,000 each (including the generous discount from Lapierre), that would have added $80,000 in cost to the study. Multiply that by 1.53 (University indirect costs) and you're talking over $122k to add that small factor (that isn't generally used by most maple producers) into the study. Then there is the cost of setting up those additional chambers, checking on them during the season, and measuring and analyzing the results at the end of each season. Probably another $40-50k on top of the setup cost. So altogether you're looking at $160-170k to add that factor.

Good research isn't cheap, and cheap research often isn't good.