Sap Safety with Lawn Fertilizers & Pesticides

[nruder]

I was thinking of tapping some of my neighbor's trees, but he mentioned that his lawn is treated with fertilizers and pesticides. His Sugar Maples are located on his lawn.

Would these chemicals present a health risk, especially when concentrated through the boil down process?

Does the tree even take up these chemicals into the sap?

Thanks.

[TF Maple]

Most any fertilizer is good for the tree and maybe better sugar content in the sap. Of course you won't be able to call your syrup organic.
You would have to know what the exact chemicals are that were used in the pesticides. Some might be systemic and are taken into plants and could have some effect on the sap. If it was insecticide I would be concerned. If it is weed killer it may or may not be something to worry about. Usually if a plant isn't killed by weed killer it is because it was able to breakdown the chemicals into harmless by products. Think of modern day chemical warfare where 2 harmless chemicals are in the bomb but when they mix they are deadly. The plants that survive weed killers have done the opposite, broken the combination of chemicals into harmless individual ingredients.
Find out what chemicals were used and do a Google search to find out if sap in trees might be affected.

[KenWP]

It's not like he put gallons of chems on the lawn. If the trees didn't die then you probbably okay. Most chems for weeds are made to kill just weeds and not trees or the grass. All the nasty chems have been outlawed for lawns and in citys and such anyways just for the reason that they were harmfull.

[red maples]

their fine...I stopped using fertilzers and pesticides about 3-4 years ago. but most of them break down and get used by the grass if his grass isn't burnt your fine!!!

[LawnMowerMan]

Something up my alley here, since I am a noob at making maple syrup, I have been a licensed pesticide applicator for 15 years.

Many common pesticides we use state clearly "do not apply to exposed roots" Like 2,4-D, Dicamba, ect. Now the thing is there just is not much documentation on anyone testing the sap to see if there is actually a considerable amount of chemical in the sap. I found a few ongoing studies but no results yet. I am sure you could contact your local state agriculture office and they could tell you. As far as the chemicals we use for weed control in lawns, and most insecticides, they would have to be dumped on the ground to reach the roots (even shallow) of the tree. Or applied in the rain ect. as long as they are applied in the righ way in my opinion pose no threat. (I do believe roundup (glyphosate) can be taken up by exposed roots)

I would not hesitate to tap the trees if I talked to him and made sure there were no mishaps with the herbicides. Now if the trees were injected with pesticides, personally I would NOT tap them. Also if the trees are healthy in summer and show no sign of pesticide damage (leaf wilt ect) I would not hesitate either.


Most of the danger is to handler like me that deal with the concentrated chemicals, once we mix them the become far less dangerous.


Other thing to remember is ALOT of these chemicals if you look at the LD50 (which is the lethal dose per kilo) you would find ordinary chemicals rank at or more lethal (like table salt & caffeine) than some of the most popular chemicals

The example I found one time: I like to show customers when I hear "oh man that stuff is REALLY bad right?"

If caffeine were a pesticide it would need to be labeled as category 2 (there are 4 classes with 1 being the most toxic). Its LD50 (in other words, the amount of this chemical that, if fed to a person, would have a 50% chance of killing him/her) is estimated at about 75 milligrams per pound that a person weighs.

In terms of 2,4 D’s LD50, it’s about 170 milligrams per pound that a person weighs – over two times LESS toxic than caffeine

so dont dump your latte at the base of your sugar maple and you should be fine!!!!:lol:

[TF Maple]

Good to have a licensed pesticide applicator weigh in on the subject.

Burnt grass doesn't tell us much about the affect on the tree, it just means there was too much fertilizer for the grass to handle. Now for the boring science lesson. Plants take in water through the process of osmosis. They take minerals into their cells and the higher concentration of minerals in their cells makes water migrate through the cell membrane into the plant.
If you apply too much fertilizer, there can be a greater amount of minerals outside the plant roots that pull water out of the cell membranes. If the plant can't overcome this, it gets dehydrated (burned). It would probably take a couple hundred pounds of fertilizer to hurt a tree, just guessing!