Average Production for Red Maples

[jrgagne99]

I've heard that for Sugar Maples, 0.25 gal/tap is "average" production for a decent year, also known as a "Full Crop".

Does anyone know if there is a similar rule of thumb for Red Maples?

How do the numbers change for vacuum systems vs. gravity?

As a side note, I just saw that UVM Proctor consideres 0.5 gal/tap to be their "Full Crop" standard.

[Russell Lampron]

Subscribing to this thread to see what others have to say. I tap mostly reds and am close to .25 gpt this season. I am close enough so that 1 more run will put me over the .25 gpt. I got .4 gpt in 2011 which was a record year. I generally get less than the .25 gpt for one reason another. Mostly it is weather related but releaser and vacuum problems and accidents with tank valves have also been contributing factors. The reds normally don't produce as much sugar as a sugar maple and also give less sap so I feel that .25 gpt is a good number for them. Other producers around me are at 20 plus gpt of sap from there sugars while I am at 15 gpt of sap from my reds even though my tubing system is tight and I am pulling 25.5 hg of vacuum.

[mapleack]

I tap mostly reds, probably 80%. When on gravity I never got over one pint of syrup per tap. Now on vacuum no higher than 22" this is my fourth season in a row at 0.33 gallon of syrup per tap, just about done for this year and have gotten 31 gallons of sap per tap!!!! I think I'd hit 0.4 if I had high vac.

[psparr]

I am on buckets. Only my second year. I have not kept track of sap totals however I have quite a few reds that have given at least 30-40 gallons. I tapped Jan 3 and quit last week.

[jrgagne99]

Just to update where I'm at...

I run 140 taps at about 25 inHg vacuum with tight lines and right now I'm at about 0.22 gal/tap. Hopefully we get one more week of sugaring weather...

In 2011, I made 0.4 gal/tap, just like Russ. In 2012, it was about 0.12 gal/tap.

[Russell Lampron]

Just to update where I'm at...

I run 140 taps at about 25 inHg vacuum with tight lines and right now I'm at about 0.22 gal/tap. Hopefully we get one more week of sugaring weather...

In 2011, I made 0.4 gal/tap, just like Russ. In 2012, it was about 0.12 gal/tap.

We're doing about the same this year too! I need to make about 6 more gallons plus what I make when I finish what's in the evaporator to be at .25 gpt for this season. I was at .16 gpt in 2012.

[Amber Gold]

We run about 50% reds and are ~30gpt of sap and 0.5gpt of syrup on mostly 3 year old tubing.

[PerryW]

I started on red maples with about 25 wooden buckets on red maple woods trees in 1968, but I was only 8 years old, so I don't remember the totals. I do remember we made syrup that year, but, we sold the wooden buckets for $5 each (antique shop) and we could buy nice galvanized buckets for $1.

So the next year we put up 60 galvanized bucket on sugar maples and made about 15 gallon totals back then.

I've also tapped a few reds off and on over the years, including one string of 20 along with 600 woods sugar maple taps. Like sugar maples, red maples produce way more sap if they are field trees w/ large crowns. I'm not sure if gravity red maple woods taps produce much at all. I rarely see my string of 20 reds running too well.

Sounds like vacuum is highly recommended if you are tapping reds.

[GeneralStark]

Interesting thread. I used to tap some red maples on buckets but gave up because they never gave as much sap as a sugar maple. I do tap them on vacuum as the woods I am presently tapping is about 15% red maple overall. Some larger older trees and some younger trees in the 9-12" range that I have released. The young trees are growing very vigorously and on a couple 2 year old tapholes are almost no longer visible. In this woods, the red maples are generally found up on the ridge top, or in wetter areas. I suspect that production from red maples is much more variable than sugar maples as they tolerate a wider range of soil conditions than sugar maple. Red maples in a swamp probably don't produce as much as red maples on better drained soils with big healthy crowns.

I have been looking at some woods in the area to lease or purchase, and the one I looked at yesterday was mostly red maple. Northwest facing, lots of seeps, and very little ledge or rock. There is some sugar maple in the better drained areas, but I suspect that it is 75% +/- red maple. It appears to be a productive, vigorous woods so I suspect with high vacuum it could achieve .4 gpt on a good year, but hard sayin'.

[lew]

We had out 4,000 taps this year and averaged .4gpt syrup and 27 gpt sap. approximately 1,000 aare reds mixed in with the sugars. Vacuum levels stay around 24". In the small woods behind our house,about 100 taps 98% reds, we used to run gravity tubing and gave up on it because it rearely gave us enough sap to bother with. This year I retubed th woods, added vacuum and we ended up with 13 gpt. The vacuum we added was terrible. The bender releaser I was playing with would not cooperate and I was only able to maintain 11-13 inches vac on it. And only half the time did it have this vacuum on it. As soon as the releaser was half way to the dumping point the sap would start to back up in the mainline untill there was enough pressure to push through the chack valve and make the thing dump. I had bigger fish to fry than play with this little woods. So next year I will attack it again. So back to the point of this thread. I think that with at least moderate levels of vacuum you will produce a decent crop, gravity I don't think I wqould bother. Aslo on a side note. The sugar content of the small mostly red maple woods would be.1% less than the other big woods with higher vacuum adn mostly sugars.