Budding early- now turning colder

[David Wayne]

Due to a warm spell in central Ohio some of my trees have started to bud. Now its getting more normal with low down to 25 will this knock the buds off
and produce good sap or should I pull those that have budded? And can you tell by tasting the sap if it is to late? Hate to boil to find out and dont want to add to good sap if it is bad.

Thanks in advance,
David

[DrTimPerkins]

Do you mean buds are open (you see green leaf material) or that they are swelling? Or are you seeing reddish-colored buds? Swelling buds and red (flower) buds usually are not a problem.

To detect buddy off-flavor, collect a little sap, reduce by half or 3/4 by boiling, and smell and taste the boiled sap (let it cool a bit first). If it smells like buddy sap when boiling (sweatsock odor) or has a buddy flavor, then you're probably done.

[David Wayne]

Red buds, many were on the ground yesterday. No green yet.

[Hunt4sap]

IMG_20180227_170418077.jpg
Look like this?
I believe these are the flower part of" budding"

[Russell Lampron]

That's the flower and shouldn't be a problem, it's the bud under the flower in your picture that you have to worry about. I tap mostly red maples, have never made buddy syrup and I've been tapping them since 2001. I have made a lot of syrup from sap with flowers on the trees with no off flavors. If the trees will run again boil some of the sap down and do the taste and smell test like Dr Tim said. It seems that my season always ends before the buds pop here.

[David Wayne]

Yep red like the picture. Tested some today in the turkey fryer seems fine. Thanks