Heating trees through a cold snap...

[IWDaddo]

Not sure if this is the right part of MapleTrader for this one... And, this may be an ill-thought-out plan... but...

Our farm is in Columbia County, NY, right in the Berkshires and Taconics. My daughter and I have been tapping our trees for 3 years now, but the kicker is that we have to be in Los Angeles most of the year (her for school, my wife and I for work). This year, we can only come back for five days starting this Thursday (3/9/17) and the forecast looks like this:

WED: HI 59º LOW 31º
THU: HI 43º LOW 23º
FRI: HI 33º LOW 7º
SAT: HI 20º LOW 6º
SUN: HI 28º LOW 8º

Obviously, if we could get there on Wednesday, we'd might get 2 days of at least SOMETHING. But as it stands, it looks like Thursday is just about the only day with decent chances of sap running. UNLESS... I try something. I have about 5-6 outdoor propane tank heaters, the kind that screw on top of a normal 20-pound gas cylinder. I also have some thick silver poly tarps. If I were to wrap the tarp around the tree about 12 feet high and flare it out to the ground, creating a sort of "teepee" with the gas cylinder heating within, I could essentially "warm up" 5 or 6 of my huge maples, at least the bottom 12 feet of them (and the ground close by).

I've had to do something similar with fruit trees in years past, and I can lock both cylinder and tarps down, even in high winds, so I know - and heed - all the warnings not to burn everything to the ground. But my question is this: if I were to keep things around the tree warm starting Thursday night, is there a chance I can eke out another tapping day on Friday? I had read that sap flows upwards due to the pressure changes caused by temperature, and if I can possibly "trick" some of our trees, even for a few hours, I can make my little girl very, very happy.

I don't pretend I can do anything about 7-degree weather. But if I can buy a few more hours on this very short trip, this trip will be a success. Thoughts?

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

I think you should try it and give us a report on how it worked. Pictures would be good also

[Cedar Eater]

It seems kind of extreme, but the circumstances make that understandable. It might work. I would really like to hear from Dr. Tim on this one.

[FDA]

Do you have a tire store nearby? Maybe you could get some scrap tires and lay them in a circle around the drip line of the tree and set the on fire to warm the tree up.

[bigschuss]

Pretty sure FDA's idea was just sarcasm? But seeing some of the crazy posts this year (like the guy who wanted to kill the sap suckers on his land) I'm not sure.

My 2 cents....making maple syrup is time and labor intensive as it is. To go through all trouble for what, IMHO, has almost no chance of affecting sap slow, is just something that would be a waste if time.

[stoweski]

Do you have a tire store nearby? Maybe you could get some scrap tires and lay them in a circle around the drip line of the tree and set the on fire to warm the tree up.

Sounds like something Red Green would do.

[barnbc76]

We just had a day down to 10 degrees here, then warm up to 55 the other day. I thought I would have lots of SAP when I got home, my big trees only just started to flow after 8hrs of 50 degree weather. I don't know how effective a propane heater could be, I guess I doubt it would be very effective in that cold of weather.

I would consider buying SAP from someone first.

[Russell Lampron]

When sap lows on gravity it runs down the tree. Unless the sun was hot enough to thaw the branches heating the trunks would be a waste of time. If this weekend is a carbon copy of last weekend I don't think it will work.

[Galena]

LOL the number of times I've been tempted to go out and wrap my trees in giant blankies in the vain hope of that warming them up enough to get the sap going....but nope. If you have the $$$ to buy crazy amounts of propane and just maybe get a teeny bit of sap, well have fun burning your money.

And needless to say FDA's suggestion to set tire fires is not only incredibly f***in stupid, but also very dangerous and probably highly illegal, especially in a residential area. I sincerely hope like H*** that he was just joking. Burning tires give off black noxious smoke, you would be busted and probably fined up the yinyang for polluting the environment. Either buy sap, or spare your poor trees and just don't tap at all.

[n8hutch]

Maybe you could take a Day trip Wednesday to a few Sugar houses , Soak it all in sample some things and relax. What you are contemplating doing seems kind of like alot of trouble for very little return. So if it would me I'd try and find something else fun to do that I wouldn't necessarily have time for because on a normal ideal year I'd be boiling sap.