my land

[adk1]

Well, as most of you know with all of my questions, I am a few years away from actually getting into this but I am getting all of my ducks in a row and learning. This winter I am gonna start thinning my sapbush sicne right now it is merely a bunch of mixed trees with quite a few white pines/hemlocks in there shading everything. My guess is that everyone is gonna tell me to get rid of all of them and use them for my sapwood. Is this correct?
Waht about the smaller diameter say 2-3" sugar maples that I ahve. How should I cull those out? Just look at the branch structure and determine which is the best and remove the others? I heard I should have ideally a 30x30' area around each tree.

[peacemaker]

adk go get the maple syrup producers manual

[maple flats]

Don't remove them all at once. Mark the sugarmaples so they can be seen from a distance. Then choose the bigger ones, and do a release cut (remove trees that touch the crop tree canopy) on 2 sides. After that look at areas that had no larger sugars and pick the ones that are shaped the best and again do a release cut. You will not go directly to the ideal density. You do it in steps. After the woods have been completely gone thru, repeat, this time opening up another side. This will likely take a couple of years or more. Each time you have finished the woods with improvement cutting you start again but make sure you allow a few years time for the previous thinning to take affect. If you have 2 trees that look good that are fairly close to each other you can save both or remove one because releasing is not a specific formula you must follow but rather a general guideline or approach. The 30x30 you mention will never fully materialize unless you plant a bush on an open field and eventually thin it to 30x30. Use that as your guide, have fun and watch the results as the released trees fill in and give you a nice full crown.

[Russell Lampron]

If the pines and hemlocks are big enough you can have them sawed into the lumber you will need to build your sugar house. Try not to damage the maples when you cut the other stuff out.

[petersp22]

You may want to see if your state forestry agency offers free consultation to private landowners. A professional forester will consider your goals for your specific stand and can explain how to get there most effectively. If your state doesn't offer the service perhaps they can recommend a reputable consultant forester that can help. Be sure to assert your goals - sugarbush development, over timber production. That means favoring crown development and diameter growth and probably a bit lower residual basal area than they may normally leave. That may take a couple entries, as has been suggested already. I suggest you keep some diversity in your stand too.

[forester1]

All good advice here. Another thing you could do as you thin the young maples is check their sugar content with a refractometer and keep the sweetest trees. Refractometers are cheap on ebay. Get a 0-18% brix. Check in the spring and mark trees to save and remove. Form and health should come first. Take out the diseased, wounded, low acute forks first.

[peacemaker]

i have a ?? on that just becasue a young tree has good content does that mean she will always or will it change year to year

[peacemaker]

thats what i thought ... now heres another on that line besides proper thining can u change a lower % tree ?

[peacemaker]

what about grafting in say branches to a low sugar tree from a high sugar content when there young ? kinda like making a fruit basket tree

i know that i read once about them cloning trees that are now able to be tapped ...

[peacemaker]

well i know that when u hybrid they become sterile ... i have a young patch of trees that where very tight i thinned them this summer left all the maples still havent hit them yet unless they where damaged ... but they have very lttle baranches low just small crowns may try to graft soem low branhes in

[peacemaker]

no beech mostly ash and oak ... and pine i was gonna try ones that i might cull out anyways ... alos gonna tap a bunch of the culls in there this year