Need Some Guidance

Hello,

Been kicking the idea of getting into the maple sugar hobby for sometime now. Been reading and watching as much reference material as I can. We plan on starting small and keeping it small scale here in NE Pennsylvania. I figure this is the year to give it a go and since we just moved to a new home with some land we may just have a little luck.

I am looking at tapping 3-4 trees and there are no leaves this time of year. Attached are some pictures of the bark and one shot of the branches with appear to be opposite. All of the trees are displaying the opposite branching. I know it is easier with the leaves but want to be sure before the prime time hits here in mid Feb. I am figuring each tree is about 50+" circumference and appear to be healthy.

Any help and advice would GREATLY be appreciated and I thank you in advance for your support!!


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Definitely opposite branching and are maples. #1 I'm not sure, could be sugar, but 2 and 4 look more like reds. 50" circumference = approx 17" diameter. Once you get up to 18"+diameter or about 55" circumference on a good healthy tree, 2 taps should be fine

Are those pictures recent? What concerns me is the apparent large bud at the tips of many of the branches. Maples will not have such a bud show this early, especially, a sugar maple. The soft maples like Reds and Silvers get the bud earlier, but still not this early.
I have issue with those, I wonder if they are some sort of nut tree, many of which also have opposite branching. That being said, the picture with your hand showing the side plate peal certainly appears to be a mature sugar maple. Unless the picture of the top branches is the same tree.
Also a sugar maple would have far more dense branching. If you look at the pic of the branches the one in the foreground is not, but looking thru to the adjacent tree branches that may well be a maple.

I tap primarily reds. Many of my reds have had buds like that since November and they do every year. Other reds have much smaller buds until spring time. Seems as though theres quite a bit of variability in bud size even among the same species. I agree, however, with buds that size at this time of year thats not a sugar. I'd tap 'em if it were me.

A second thing that make me think those are not reds or sugars is that the branch density on the closeup of the top, a healthy maple has more branches.
I have a few reds I tap, and none of them have upper limbs that look like that, but I have butternuts the do.

Looks like reds to me. Look around on the ground for old leaves is another clue.

All good points. Snow has melted away. I'm going to look at the leaves on the ground tomorrow. I will try to get better pictures of the branches.

Welcome HondoLane! My silver maples look just like your photos do - shaggy bark and large open canopies. They constantly shed branches with every wind storm. Kind of a lawn clean-up pain, however, they have been excellent sap producers for me over the years. One of them even gives me 6% sugar in the sap when the conditions are good. Tap those trees, just make sure that you are getting into the good wood of the tree as the shaggy bark can be pretty thick. ENJOY!!!

The buds on the silver maples are large even in November, so don't be worried that they look fat in January. I usually pull my silver maple taps about a week before the sugar maples are done and have never experienced 'buddy sap' doing that.

Ok. Took a closer look since the snow melted. Found some leaves in the area.
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That looks like a red maple. It's close to a black maple, leaf-wise, but the lobes are not as deep and are more rounded on the black.