South side sap?

[Rick_Seebeck]

I am tapping trees for the first time this year. I am only doing 20 taps. When I drilled the holes on the south side of the tree, sap came pouring out. When I tapped the north sided of the same tree - nothing. I am assuming that the north side is still frozen but am I right?

[royalmaple]

May not be frozen, but certainly the colder side of the tree. They will kick in too. Can't always tap on the south side.

[Fred Henderson]

I try to tap East or South side.

[gmcooper]

If your planning to tap the trees for many years you need to utilize the entire tree. All sides at some point to keep tap holes spaced out. The south side may run first but the north will run later to some degree.
Years ago the guy who tapped at my grandfathers was told to always tap on the south side. He did and 25 years later those trees that are still alive all have large dead slabs on the south side. They were just plasterd with old tap holes and way too much dead wood to ever heal.

[andrew martin]

I would agree. Tap the whole tree over a number of years, not favoring one side over the other. Although the south side will run sooner and sometimes harder, I have found the north side to run longer, epecially since it is not in direct sunlight. I have had north side taps yield 2-3 gallons a day on good days. Andrew

[argohauler]

I've also found that tapping over a main root gives a bigger run as well.

There was a study done once, where they injected die into a tree and had holes on the opposite side of the tree. The die came out of those tap holes, so it travels all over I guess.