Question on reds

[TRAILGUY]

I am taping reds for the first time and I always stopped before the end of the run so here is my question? When reds go buddy is the sap cloudy or yellow or is it just the taste? Most of the red will be on buckets this year so I can test them.

[Smitty]

TrailGuy,
i have always gone by the taste, it is not mistakable, and i have never
seen foggy or yellow buddy sap.(man, i'm a dumb a_ _!of course i have seen foggy, buddy sap, i just meant to say that i do not wait for it to
get foggy to test it. test it every time i pick it up( late in the season)


hope this helps,
Al Smith

[KenWP]

My trees stopped produceing before they ever turned buddy except the silvers which made for a intresting batch of syrup. Just keep watch of the buds and stop or go commercial.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

My bush that was mostly reds was the last one running last year. No sign of buddy syrup. Cloudy certainly and it was commercial but the flavor was good. I think the worry over reds budding early and causing buddy syrup is overblown.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My reds quit producing by the time they bud, never had a problem with buddy sap.

[Russell Lampron]

The season is usually over here before the buds break. There is no way to tell by looking at the sap. The smell of the boiling sap and flavor of the syrup will be the only clues. You won't get much sap out of a red with buckets so you won't be missing much if you have to pull them early.

[red maples]

my reds stopped producing before buddy sap last year and buds didn't pop until 2-3 weeks after the sap stopped running.

speaking of my test taps boiled off my 2 or so gallons of sap from reds 1.5% sugar made very light almost clear syrup (granted it was on the stove over constant heat). hope that sugar comes up a little. but nice and light!!!

[Buckeye mapler]

My reds budded last year and the sap was definitely cloudy. I pulled them when I found that all the taps that were still running (which was about 25%) were cloudy. The others stopped running before they budded, but I am talking cloudy sap from the ones that were running that budded!:o

[Maplebrook]

I've tapped all red maple for 9 seasons now. I've always boiled every last drop and have not experienced buddy sap like the sugar maple guys speak of.
If the sap is left too many days before boiling it will cloud. Always makes good syrup, albeit dark.

[KenWP]

Freind has all reds on his place and he was amazed to find out they made syrup. He's 70 years old and his family has owned the land for 160 years and never had a tap on it. He has 5 sections of trees and they haven't used the land for farming since the early 60s.

[ctjim]

i tap almost all reds as thats what we have on the farm. my taps will usually dry up b4 the trees bud out, by then the sap is usually very cloudy but not yellow or smells funny. when it gets near the end of the run my syrup is usually very dark and/or commercial.

[LEROY MILLER]

i have about 200 or so red maples i have taped for 5 years and all have ran very well and have had sugar content over 2% . trees always have stoped running before the sap got budy.

[red maples]

last year in NH everyone that taps sugars got alot of dark syrup and sugar was very low I tapped mostly reds and a few sugars. I had an average of over 2% on the reds and around 1.2-1.7% on the sugars.

[red maples]

My reds budded last year and the sap was definitely cloudy. I pulled them when I found that all the taps that were still running (which was about 25%) were cloudy. The others stopped running before they budded, but I am talking cloudy sap from the ones that were running that budded!:o

you say they budded but did your sap flavor change to buddy as welll??

[Buckeye mapler]

you know what, I really didn't try to boil after that, maybe I will try this year and see. I was a little afraid to do it. I guess I may have missed out on more syrup. :(

[3rdgen.maple]

Man the last few years my reds have budded and the sap kept coming. Everyone thought I lossed my marbles boiling that nasty stuff but hey Aunt Jemima and Mrs Buttersworth does not seem to mind it. Boil it and sell is as mersh.

[sapman]

I have boiled cloudy sap many times over the years. I think with a DE filter, one could probably get it almost clear. But I've made med. amber decent tasting stuff from cloudy before. Last year was a lot of mersh with cloudy stuff, though.

[markct]

yea last year i boiled till there was nothing coming outa the trees, last 5 gal were after the buds were on the reds, and probably half my trees are reds, maybe more. smelled a bit funny evaporating it, not real bad, but put in in a 5 gal container and took it with me to bascoms, figuring it was c, they graded it b and paid me as b so i was happy!

[markct]

yea last year i boiled till there was nothing coming outa the trees, last 5 gal were after the buds were on the reds, and probably half my trees are reds, maybe more. smelled a bit funny evaporating it, not real bad, but put in in a 5 gal container and took it with me to bascoms, figuring it was c, they graded it b and paid me as b so i was happy!

[gomish]

I see that some of you tap reds. I am tapping first time and was going striclty for sugars, but I have many reds and now may try a few reds also.

Is budding when the red buds actually pop open, or just get fat?

I am up at 2000ft elevation in the alleghenys. plan to tap before the next warming spell, but snow predicted this week.

[Gary R]

Nothing wrong with tapping reds. Half of mine are reds. Most already have buds on them. The budding is different than Sugars. Most around here will tell you that the reds will just quit giving sap and not go "buddy". Sugar content can be variable. I do have some reds with the same or higher than some of my sugars.

[Riverdale]

we've ran a lot of tubing past red maples in the past but have now started to tap them just the same as sugars. Some of our higher sugar contents came from a new bush last year with around 60/40 split sugars to reds. We didnt notice any change in the sap at the end of the year. I would say go ahead and tap the reds.
Gomish, on a side note, being from Nicktown, do you know Bob Lieb?

[gomish]

Thanks Gary I have about 20 sugar, about 30 reds, and a couple reds are about 3 ft diam. so I may need to expand my operation in the future!

[gomish]

Riverdale, there are a lot of Leib families in the Nicktown, pa area, I know many of them, I don't recall a Bob, how old would he be? Brian Leib (doctor brian, about 35 years old) is the fellow that I visited to look at his arch which he bought. I had a scrap chunk of SS the same size as his pan, and got the idea to build up the pan and make a barrel arch.

[Riverdale]

Bob would be in early 30's at this point I think, his family operates a dairy off of rt 553 I think it is. He's an old college buddy of mine.

[gomish]

Riverside, yes I know the family the older generation. I am 55. That farm on rt 553 is called BARR RIDGE and the curent operator is Ralph Leib about 60 (his dad Herm was about 85) so I will bet BOB is Ralphs son, I dont know the younger boys by name.