Volume of sap

[Endlesssvariety]

I am trying to get into sugaring and have heard from a couple of different people that it doesn't matter how many buckets you put on a tree you will get the same amount of sap. For instance if you hang 2 buckets they may be half full but if it was a single bucket it would be full on the same tree.

[KenWP]

Thats basically a wives tale. It depends on the tree. I have little trees that give more then big trees. I also have trees that give buckets full from both sides so with one tap I would get one bucket period. For some reason different areas of the same tree give better volumes then other areas.

[PerryW]

Putting more taps on a tree will get you more sap, but I believe it is not a direct relationship.

In other words, doubling the taps in the tree may only increase the sap by 50%.

More importantly, putting too many taps on a tree year after year is not good for the tree. You will also run out of places to bore your holes and you will get lower quality sap if you drill too close to an unhealed taphole.

[TF Maple]

Also, from my experience, the warm side of the tree will start running first and as the flow is slowing down on the warmest side, the colder side will start flowing. Then the warm side stops flowing but the colder side flows well for a while. So usually the south side of a tree starts flowing first and the north side later.
As far as East and West, seems to depend on which side gets the most sun, then that is the warm side and the other is the cold side. I tapped a tree on my cousins bush we called the bullet hole tree. He missed a deer last year and made a glancing wound on the south side of the tree. We put a tap on the east and one on the west sides. This tree is on the west side of his woods, so that side warmed up faster than the east side and the sap ran first from the west side and also from the south facing bullet hole. As the west side and bullet hole sap flow slowed up, the east side got going.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I would think that tree ring abnormalities would have something to do with sap flow in the same tree. You can have tight grained wood on one side of a tree causing less sap flow. Trees form wood at differant rates in the same tree due to sun, canopy formation and even roots on one side of a tree getting better nutrients. Next time you see a cross section of a log check it out.

[Endlesssvariety]

Thanks for the information you all have helped to answer the question