Plastic vs metal taps

[bearair]

I have about 50 Metal taps with hanging buckets and the rest are plastic taps with tubes leading to buckets which I place on the ground. Over all the metal taps have produced better this year than the plastic.

I noticed that the metal taps I use to hang buckets on have a small hole in the side, and was wondering if the hole lines up with the sap wood just inside the bark.

The plastic tap does not have a hole in the side which forces all the sap to flow back into the hole to make its way into the tap.

So if I were to drill a small hole on the side of the plastic tap would this help production?


Any thoughts?

[wnybassman]

Would that hole be the one to put the bucket lid on? I use snap on roof lids so I don't know.

[brookledge]

I suppose you could drill holes on the side. How many plastic taps did you have? did you set enough of them to get a good comparison? Where each kind in simular sized trees?
If you did set enough plastic taps( I know you had 50 metal) to get a fair comparison then try drilling a few to see if it helps otherwise get more metal ones.
How far into the bucket did you run the 5/16? If the outlet of the line was below the level of the liquid it can suck sap back into the tree when the tree pressure drops. Part of the reason the new c.v adapter was designed. If that was the case you might have lost some sap at night.
Keith