When do (helicopters) fall off trees

[Mr. Red Maple]

I was wondering when do helecopters fall off the maple trees. I heard somewhere that sugars and blacks fall in the fall and reds fall in spring is this true? If not what is the truth. Do all maples drop them and what time of year for what types of tree. Please inform me on this subject thanks!

[happy thoughts]

Yes, it's true. Reds drop seeds in the spring and sugars/blacks in late summer and fall. I believe silvers also produce and drop their seeds in the spring. All maples produce them. They are seeds and a way the trees repopulate themselves. The shape of the "helicopters", technically called samara, are distinctive to each species of maple and can be used to ID the tree species. A good tree field guide should give info on time of seed drop. It is different for each type of maple.

[Mr. Red Maple]

Hey man thanks

[220 maple]

My red maples have only dropped seeds 4 times since 1998, they usually bud early then we get a hard freeze, they never produce seeds when they reset after a freeze! Some years we can have a heavy seed crop on our sugars/black maples, some years not hardly any seeds. I don't have a clue why that happens. Maybe due to spring freezing also?

Mark 220 Maple

[happy thoughts]

My red maples have only dropped seeds 4 times since 1998, they usually bud early then we get a hard freeze, they never produce seeds when they reset after a freeze! Some years we can have a heavy seed crop on our sugars/black maples, some years not hardly any seeds. I don't have a clue why that happens. Maybe due to spring freezing also?

Mark 220 Maple

The weather probably plays a large part just like a late freeze can affect fruit production. But I have to wonder if something else like alternate bearing is also going on. That's the tendency of some trees to produce heavy crops some years and minimal crops in others. Many fruit trees display this as do oaks --> acorns. Some biologists believe it's a tree's way of outwitting the animals that depend on the crop for survival while conserving its own nutrient resources. Bearing fruit/seeds takes a lot of resources. Only producing large crops some years means large predator numbers are not supported in the off years. That allows more seeds to survive and go on to eventual germination in years that crops are heavy.

[Michael Greer]

Last year was a big seed year for the sugar maples here in St. Lawrence County New York. In my woods, and in the lawn and flower beds, the seedlings are growing like grass...several per square inch..it's pretty amazing. If I didn't mow my lawn this summer it would be too thick to walk through in a couple of years.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Last year was a big seed year for the sugar maples here in St. Lawrence County New York. In my woods, and in the lawn and flower beds, the seedlings are growing like grass...several per square inch..it's pretty amazing. If I didn't mow my lawn this summer it would be too thick to walk through in a couple of years.

I just came from a corn field that was fallow last year and just down wind from our sugar bush -- there are thousands of two leaf maples sprouted. I'm wondering if this could be the start of an orchard using the Proctor method?

[ennismaple]

Last year was a big seed year for the sugar maples here in St. Lawrence County New York. In my woods, and in the lawn and flower beds, the seedlings are growing like grass...several per square inch..it's pretty amazing. If I didn't mow my lawn this summer it would be too thick to walk through in a couple of years.

Same thing in Lanark County in Eastern Ontario. A very heavy seed crop last fall - and because of that one of the more experienced producers I know correctly forecasted the poor sugar content we got this spring. Hopefully the deer browse the young maples and not the apple trees I'm trying to get established.