Maple orchards?

[Jebediah]

This year for the first time I had access to some yard trees (not in the woods). They out-performed the woods trees by a wide margin. This got me to wondering: why aren't there (to my knowledge) "maple orchards?" Trees planted with perfect spacing, perfectly symmetrical planting for efficient tube setup, no competition, etc. It would be a very long-term (multi-generation?) investment, I guess. Do such engineered maple plantings exist?

[RC Maple]

While I have seen a picture or two of such plantings they are very rare and have a "unicorn" status. I thought it sounded like a good idea though and planted 20 sugar maples myself last spring. Layed the tape measure out and spaced them all evenly then proceeded to fight off the deer and the jap beetles and I saw the other day it looks like they will all be leafing out shortly and I am looking forward to seeing how they fare this year.

[Sugarmaker]

Jeb,
Yes they exist and we tap them! 150 of the best maples in two counties. All spaced out nicely, big crowns. All hard maples (maybe a couple soft) Very good amount of sap, good sugar content. Are they in the backyard? No! Do we have to go to them? Yes. I learned this lesson a long time ago.
We made .3 gallons of syrup per tap on gravity tubing this season.
Regards,
Chris

[Bucket Head]

Yes, they are out there.

But they are extremely rare! There's one south of Cooperstown, NY. The gentleman tapping that one was/is(?) a user here but I forget his name. It was two or three years ago when it was mentioned.

I salivate every time I drive by it. Not to mention I usually drive off the road a bit while looking at the lines of trees going up the hill.

Then when I'm trying to manuever the car back on the road and away from the ditches I curse the car, the road and the gentleman tapping them.

Steve

[Jebediah]

Very interesting--thanks!

[SDdave]

So if one were to do such a planting, how long before tapping? Assuming starting with a 2" bare root maple, most likely a soft maple such as Autumn Blaze or Silvers.

SDdave

[MichtonTree]

I was thinking same thing. We bought our property a couple of years ago with park like setting and 8 sugar maples around 75 years old. (There a few more in the back of the property I will tap next year). My first year sugaring 12 taps produced sap at 3.37% and 4.5 gallons of sap. I could not believe the sugar level at first, reading what sugar levels usually are. But realized what you said spacing and no competition makes all the difference. I will be planting ten more this year for future generations.

[Run Forest Run!]

So if one were to do such a planting, how long before tapping? Assuming starting with a 2" bare root maple, most likely a soft maple such as Autumn Blaze or Silvers.

I planted bare root Silver maple and Freeman maple whips and am currently tapping them. If you give yourself about 15 years, you should be tapping. Those trees give me great sugar content and I couldn't be happier with them.

[Michael Greer]

As a culture, we Americans have no patience, no long range vision, and no real habit of passing things on to the next generation. Who can imagine planting something that won't produce for 15 or 20 years?? The trees that I tap here in the Village of Potsdam were planted along all the streets around 1900. Clever folks would have planted more in 1950, and again when the year 2000 rolled around, but we just don't do things that way here.
I benefit from the work and planning of others long passed. I appreciate those street side trees because of the shade, the autumn beauty, and the 4% sap they yield. I plant trees that I'll never see tapped as a gesture toward those I'll never meet.
I'm pretty convinced that planting trees is the only real solution to the atmospheric carbon problems we face, and I sure wish we'd planted more.

[MichtonTree]

This year for the first time I had access to some yard trees (not in the woods). They out-performed the woods trees by a wide margin. This got me to wondering: why aren't there (to my knowledge) "maple orchards?" Trees planted with perfect spacing, perfectly symmetrical planting for efficient tube setup, no competition, etc. It would be a very long-term (multi-generation?) investment, I guess. Do such engineered maple plantings exist?

Amen......