testing trees

[TRAILGUY]

any one near New Durham , NH have a good set up for testing sugar in trees. i am doing a lot of management and have some areas that not sure witch maple should go. Thin but still should take more. Wife is an great cook who likes home made bread??

trailguy

[brookledge]

The topic has been discussed before so you may want to do a search but the simplest way is to use a refractometer. If you don't want to buy one then see if someone will allow you to borrow one. Anyways all you need is a few drops of sap. i'm assuming you are culling smaller trees which have thinner bark. Take an awl or a sharp object and poke a hole and collect a few drops with an eye dropper and put the drops on the lens to get your reading. Do all of your comparitive testing at the same time. Sap content can vary from day to day so never compare a tree tested yesterday to tommorrow etc. But trees tested at the same time should more or less hold the dispairity between them. Then you can cut the trees that have a lower sugar content. I would also look at the condition of the tree also to see if there is any other issues with it and add that to your culling criteria
Keith