Did I do that?

[Spile4Me]

My husband and I have been tapping for just a couple of seasons. All we have are Norway maples, but it has gotten us enough sap to produce enough syrup for ourselves and some friends. Last year we tapped a neighbors Norways, which were all above 10 inches in diameter. We put only one tap in each one, about 4 feet up. The trees produced quite a bit of sap. Last week we had like 40-60 mph winds and 2 of his Norways broke over half way up and he thinks its because we weakened his trees by taking the sap. I can't believe we had anything to do with this but am asking.

[heus]

No way!!!! He is dead wrong.

[Spile4Me]

I hope Dr. Tim says the same. We learned from season veterans, and we were very careful. The fact that he couldn't share his thoughts with us, and just told another friend he thinks it was us tapping his trees that must have weakened them so they snapped. We went from freezing temps last week to 50 degrees with winds upwards of 40 mph. Perhaps the trees were still frozen and the wind just snapped them?

[Thad Blaisdell]

trees break that is the way it is, tapped or untapped they break at the weakest point. If they didnt break at the spot you drilled then you didnt do it. If he lets you go ahead and tap the broken tree, the sap is in the roots......

[DonMcJr]

Well if Tapping Maple Trees makes then break off in High Winds when the temp goes from Sub Zero to 50 F then I'd have 4 Trees on my house right now! We had the SAME temp conditions and 60 MPH gusts a few days ago and my 4 big maples are fine!

[Spile4Me]

Thank you guys for the answers. He apparently said we would not be tapping his trees this year. If he had just had enough guts to say what he thought to us, we could have shown him it was not our fault. They broke 20-30 feet above where we tapped. lol

[Spile4Me]

yeah I don't think he's gonna let us near his trees. lol

[heus]

Do you happen to live in the city or suburbs? Sounds like something an ignorant city person would think. He probably thinks chocolate milk comes from brown cows too.

[Spile4Me]

heus, we do live in a city. I wish he would do some research and realize it was the crazy wind not the 2 years of tapping we did.

[ennismaple]

I think Dr Tim posted something recently that says we get between 0.5% and 2% of the soluble sugar from a tree, depending on diameter and vacuum level. You cannot take too much of the "water" out of the tree because it will wick more out of the soil.

Norway maples are generally weaker than sugars and prone to wind and snow damage. Not your fault.