maple Aorta?

[softmaple]

does a maple tree have an aorta? cause i hit a spot on several maples that produced nothing last year and this year its filling up 4gal buckets a day on 35 degree days with no sun.

[royalmaple]

Sounds like you hit the "sweet" spot.

Calculate the area and you can sell the secret.

[Dave Y]

I don't know about a tree having an arorta, but I do know that some areas of a tree will produce better than others. If possible I try to tap the south and west sides of the tree,as those areas will get the warmest rays of the sun for the longest period. Not all trees are alike either.

[softmaple]

well the spots i have tapped are not directly on the south side, but they are placed with no deffects above or below it. now if i could only get that right on all the trees i would need a bigger evaporator.

[andrew martin]

It is the darndest thing, no rhyme or reason, just alot of calculated luck. Some of my largest trees hardly produced anything this year, while my smaller ones pumped out the sap filling 3 gal buckets in a 24 hour period. That's why I like buckets, there's still the excitement of pulling the cover back and seeing how much sap is in each bucket - it still gets me excited.

ANdrew

[Ash Cat]

An old timer told me to tap in clear wood directly between a large healthy limb and a large root. Avoid being above or below big knots or dead spots. South side of tree runs earlier in the season but also stops earlier, so I don't believe side of tree matters in the long run. Avoid ash trees because I've learned from experience that they don't run for crap.

[HanginAround]

LOL

I get caught occasionally... not tapping them, but pointing at them and saying "What about that one?" I was out cruising woods with a friend the other day and pointed at a couple poplar with large rough bark, then looked up at the green limbs, LOL Duhhh.

[mapleman3]

I have had the same happen, one year it's a great producer the next year nothing.. some areas of the tree do run better. but I still tap them hoping to hit it right.. they are great looing trees with huge crowns... go figure

Last year I tapped a few that didn't produce.. I pulled the taps early on those figuring, heck maybe I tapped an oak.. went back in the spring and looked at the leaves and they were sugars... sometimes though a tree will fool you into thinking it is some sort of maple... I wish I was an expert tree identifier!!

[maplehound]

I too had a tree that was right behind my sugar house. I tapped it for 3 years every summer I would double check to make sure it was a Maple ( it was definitly a sugar maple) But I never got a drop from that tree. I finally gave up with it and the next year it was struck by lightning and droped to the ground. A GOOD PLACE FOR IT. I would have cut it down earlier but it wasn't my tree.

[tapper]

I used to tap a large sugar maple and for its size it still had tight shiny bark. Some of you guys would probably kick me for this but I put 5 taps in it to 5 gal. buckets and that tree would fill all 5 buckets in 12 hours or less. It was always the 1st tree to start running, the last to stop and still ran when all the others were froze. Now that I have a bigger evaporator I may go back to that spot this year. 100 taps on roadside trees.