Tapping Reds and Sugars

[Amber Gold]

I'll be tapping mostly sugars with some reds mixed, probably 75%/25%. Reds will either stop earlier and/or bud earlier creating commercial syrup. I was thinking of keeping all taps in until everything stops. I'll end up creating commercial syrup earlier in the season vs. if I took the reds out, but my overall syrup produced will be higher. With commercial syrup getting the same as other grades I think this is a reasonable approach. Am I correct?

Thanks

[jason grossman]

josh, at the current prices and what grades people are buying make syurp until you can't stand the smell of it then keep going. some people down here stopped 3/4 of the way through the season because they got tired!!!! many people down here tap alot of reds and some tell me the trees just stop running and never really turn buddy. good luck and a good season to us all!!!!!

[mfchef54]

are you doing tubing or buckets? if you are on buckets you can just pull them when they get buddy. if you are on tubing just keep checking the reds to watch the buds and pull them. any way to isolate them on a separate line. last year my reds stop running before the sugars and had no problem of having buddy sap.

[maple flats]

The few reds i tap are all on their own laterals but run into the same mainline, when I looks like the reds a ready to pop, I pull them from the mainline. Then when done for the season I pull the taps (except one I spotted a few days ago that never got pulled in one l lateral section that never got washed, I just missed it some how.

[Amber Gold]

Jason, I'm thinking along the same lines. I just checked out your photobucket site. That's probably the nicest sugar house I've seen. Nice job.

Everything's on tubing with sugars and reds mixed together on laterals and mainlines.

[ericjeeper]

Jason, I'm thinking along the same lines. I just checked out your photobucket site. That's probably the nicest sugar house I've seen. Nice job.

Everything's on tubing with sugars and reds mixed together on laterals and mainlines.

There is no "Probably" about it.. That without a doubt is by far the nicest sugar house I have ever laid eyes up. Truly a work of art. Hopefully their grandkids will keep it up many years from now.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jason's sugarhouse is on the cover of the 2009 CDL catalog and for a good reason. I agree, it is the most awesome photo I have ever seen of a sugarhouse.

[Dave Y]

I tap a good mix of maples and I have never had my reds turn buddy before they stopped running. Don't worry about buddy, be happy you have sap.

[Maplewalnut]

I agree with Dave Y. My experience is that the reds will stop running altogether before they get buddy. I have more problem with sugar maples turning buddy than reds, probably because of the higher sugar content on average.

[Dave Y]

Sugar Maples run later than the other speices. Therefore they are affected more by the warmer temps.

[Maplewalnut]

Dave ...absolutely true about sugars running longer and seeing higher temps. But the starting point of buddy syrup is still the sucrose molecules in a tree, the more sucrose which gets converted to fructose and thus the buddy taste. Temps definitely help speed the process but proportionately a tree with less sugar exposed to the same temps will 'buddy' slower than one with more sugar.
I always wanted to see some research on tapping depths vs buddy. I can almost guarantee those that tap shallow and thus closer to the cambium layer of the tree experience buddy sooner because of the bark heating up.

Probably why guys who ream holes get a second wave of clean sap, since there in a little deeper.

[Dave Y]

Maplewalnut,
you are correct about the transformation of the molecules.However that is triggered by the warmer temps. If the temps got to 80 degs for acouple of days even with the snow pack we have (2-3 ft and more ), the trees would start to bud and it would be over before it got started. I have been told that has happened before. Pray for a slow warm up!

[sugarnut]

i have a silver maple that is breaking bud already. i noticed it on Feb. !st. it's hard to believe, but it's true. it seems many trees on this property break bud at different times. it is a tough puzzle to figure out. the only thing i can think of, besides silvers being early in general, is the exposure to sunlight. the red maple that is lower and on basically flat land get more sun than the reds that are on a northwest facing slope. i assume those in better sun heat up better. they run sooner and they break bud sooner.

[KenWP]

My silver maples have big red buds on them also. They have been like that since Xmas when we had 50 degree weather and the snow all melted away. Will the sap from them be buddy already or will the deep freeze we had put a stop to that. I was counting on those big trees this year to suppl most of my sap. If it is buddy can I still make it and use it for cooking and such.