retapping trees

[jordy95]

if you tap to early and they dry up can you redrill the same hole or drill another hole somewhere near the other hole to get more sap thanks.

[wcproctor]

good question. I would like to here what they have to say.

[red maples]

you can if you want. you will get some more sap for a short while but the bacteria are already present in the hole so it won't run very long...so they say... I personally wouldn't do it.

but do do a search on here there has been talk of that on here. search reaming a tap hole.

[PerryW]

If you ream it out it will run for a few more days, or maybe a week. If you bore another hole, it will run like new, but it is not recommended for the health of your trees.

[KenWP]

you can drill all the holes in a tree you want but after a couple of years you can't find a place to put a hole any more your going to be sorry. My trees have all been tapped one year now and I have been looking at them as I walk by decideing where to put this years tap already.

[mountainvan]

I reamed 2,000+ taps last year and made an extra 200 gals of syrup. I do squirt alcohol into the taphole and the spile before putting the spile back in the tree. reaming works for me and has for quite a few seasons.

[FunnyFarm]

I'm new to this so i don't really know, but was talking to a local guy who taps a few trees and he suggested starting with a 5/16 tap and if the sap stops running at some point going with the 7/16. could this cause any damage to the tree or problems?

[Dave Y]

I like Mountianvan have ream holes before with sucsess. I start with a bit 1/64 smaller than the tap . If the hole need freshened then I will go to a bit the same size as the tap. Three years ago it saved my season. I got two more weeks of sap.

[mountainvan]

drill 1- 1 1/2' in the tree now and then 1 1/2-2" later. the wood swells so you get some of the gunk out with the same bit, but going in a little more opens new wood.

[jordy95]

so this means you can tap early and if they dry up redrill them cool thanks

[DrTimPerkins]

so this means you can tap early and if they dry up redrill them cool thanks

It is not standard practice. Although it may result in a short burst of sap flow, a couple of different research projects in the U.S. and Canada have shown that reaming of tapholes is not an effective approach.

[PATheron]

You guys that ream do you use new spiles each year or just use the same ones year after year? I might just live in a particularly good spot for the trees to run a long time but so far my stuff have run from January till April. Ive only done it a couple years that way so I may be getting lucky but so far its been like that. Both years Ive been paranoid about them closing and they havent but maybe its the woods exposure. Might be worth the cost of the adapters to just not have to do all that work. Maybe this is the year I get proved wrong too, who knows. Theron:)

[Jeff E]

Theron, that is a long time for taps to stay open. Do you use adaptors?
All my taps on vac last year were with new taps/drops, so I had sap until I was making such crappy syrup I chose to quit., basically from end of Feb to 3rd week of April.

This year I thought I would go with no adaptors, but use them next year as the taps will have 2 seasons on them. Willing to rethink this, as the adaptors are cheap, and making a bit more syrup will cover that cost pretty quick.

[mountainvan]

no new spiles, unless it's a new sugarbush. I did have 800 taps that ran till the end without reaming, but with much less sap and lower quality.

[PATheron]

I do use new adapters every year. About half my stuff have cdl health spiles and I buy adapters for them and the others I buy new straight spouts every year. So each year I have brand new plastic in the tree. It is a little expensive, Id say this year Ive spent 1600$ just in spouts but my opinion is where I live it may be more important that I do it than you folks up north becouse so many years down here it will go warm and stay that way and we need every advantage to counter act that. I think you folks in New York and points north get better weather than we do for sugaring. You run gravity down here and most years it stinks becouse not enough freeze thaws. Theron