Maple trees

[3rdgen.maple]

Ok guys need some help. Im having a hard time convincing my father that you can tap soft maples. I believe most call them silver maples. We have alot of them. We could easily double our tap count if we tapped them. Advantages and disadvantages what are they? He is an old school tapper and says They make poor quality syrup.

[tuckermtn]

soft maple in most places refers to Red maple - silver maple is a different species...either one will make syrup- but they have different seasons and sugar content...search for past threads on Red maples and silver maples...

[Russell Lampron]

Eric is right on the red maple silver maple thing. For some of us if we didn't taps reds or silvers we wouldn't be able to tap at all. My father is one of those guys that thinks that red maples are firewood. I have mostly reds on my property and the taste of the syrup is the best. The old timers don't like reds and silvers because the sugar content is lower, they don't produce as much sap, they bud sooner and because of the lower sugar content make darker syrup. I have an RO machine so that makes up for the lower sugar content and the vacuum pump gets the sap that won't run on gravity. Most of my customers prefer the dark syrup so that isn't a problem. The price of commercial syrup has been pretty good lately so I have a market for the buddy flavored syrup.

[maplehound]

3rdgn,
I don't tap the red's and silvers, not because the sap isn't good, but because I am on tubing. The softmaples will bud earlier than the hards and in my area that can mean shortening the season by quit a bit. If they bud out without me cathcing them and pulling the spile right away it will spoil the whole batch of sap not just a bucket of it. Once that sour sap gets into my lines it can effect every run there after. If you have nothing else to tap or a significant number of them it may be worth the effort to do so, but in my operation I am fortunite enough to have a large stand of mostly hard maples and make it a point to stay off the soft.

[treefinder]

i tap alot of soft maple and i love the taste and so does everyone else i sell to . last year's sap once i put in the truck tank i would check with hydrometer and my sap was testing 2.8-3.5 sugar. out of the 900 maybe 200 are soft but i have soft ,sugar,and silver.. if its a maple i tap it.when i tapped with buckets i would notice it turn faster but with tubing i don't see it turn that yellow - orange color at the end . last draw of the season last year was B grade syrup and sold it bulk. i got just about 27.00 a gallon.

[michiganfarmer]

I cant identify them very well. All I have in my woods is maple, iron wood, elm, and beach. I tap everything that isnt iron wood, elm, or beach.

[KenWP]

I have very few sugar maples on my place but next door has lots of them. From what I can find out is the people who owned the land years before cut all the sugars for firewood and left the few soft maples as they will not burn them. If I never tapped soft I would have nothing to tap on my own place. They say the sugar sand is worse on the silvers but thats probbably due to the lower sugar content.

[3rdgen.maple]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I will let dad read this. I have about 400 taps on sugarmaples now but I could easily get that up to 800 or more with the softmaple on the land. Good enough reasons for me to get them tapped next year and get an ro I,m thinking. We are still old school with buckets so when the tree's turn we can just pull them taps. Wish me luck in getting an old timer to change his mind.

[Dave Y]

If It Is A maple Tap it! They all make syrup. I have yet to see my sap turn buddy because of reds budding up sooner.My trees have always quit running before the sap went bad.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I totally agree with Dave. I don't tap many red or soft maples, however you want to refer to them but the ones I do don't run as much as my sugars, not nearly as much and they just dry up and quit running well before the sugars. I never worry about budding affecting the sap quality, my season is over before budding is an issue as the holes even on the sugars dry up too.

[michiganfarmer]

If It Is A maple Tap it! They all make syrup. I have yet to see my sap turn buddy because of reds budding up sooner.My trees have always quit running before the sap went bad.

that's interesting. Ive seen tap holes still weeping sap in May

[slammer3364]

I am not to big but the majority of my trees are reds, and make good syrup.Only my second year, but ths far no problems. 18x48 D@G Hobby Evap 100 taps @ planning on more in 10