Red Maples

[adk1]

Did I hear this correctly that you can tap red maples/soft maples to produce maple syrup? I would assume that the hard maple or sugar maple just has a higher sugar content? What really is the difference?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Yup! You heard right. Soft maples are fair game. As a general rule of thumb, they produce sap of a lower sugar content and a smaller volume. Many producers on this site tap at least a few reds and there are several that tap more reds than sugars. If you are as addicted to this thing as most of us, you'll tap anything with any potential at all. Some have been known to tap telephone poles.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

You wouldn't catch me trying to tap into a hornest nest hole without my bee suit on and then i'd have to see the Lt. Gov about a sap sak..Yellow jackets can probably penetrate that sucker too?

[Russell Lampron]

I am adding a whole bunch of taps in my own woods this year and they are all red maples. If it is what you've got go for it.

[peacemaker]

i had all reds and silvers when i first started ... tsate great just never could understand why no matter what i did i couldnt make the qt per tap ...

[Dennis H.]

I tap only reds, that is all that is around here.

I heard from some here on the trader that they even tap Norway's, for what I hear the only one that is not a good one to tap is Japanese Maple.

So I opinion is, if it is a maple and you have permission to tap, tap it!

[tapper]

My 1st year I tapped only reds made 8 gallons on 40 taps. Since then I keep a mix of mostly sugars. Last season the reds put out tremendous amounts of sap but previous years they werent hardly worth tapping.

[adk1]

well that is good to know cause I have a mixture of both. but if i were to tap the soft maples then i basically have 2x as many trees that i could tap. interesting....

[mfchef54]

as was mentioned in previous thread reds do have a tendency to have less sugar and bud earlier.