studies on effects of vac on maples

[Ryan Mahar]

Hey all,

I am sure this must have been brought up in past. I am being asked by a land owner to supply them with studies indicating the safety or lack of harm to trees when using vacuum. I am well aware of the benefits of vac in that we are using less taps per trees, preventing less bacteria to enter the tap hole etc... but the only really studies I have found or articles through proctor or cornell more or less say that so far it looks like there is no harm but really there is no way to tell yet for many more years........does any one have any real good 'reads' for non-maple producers to allow them more confidence in us using vacuum in their woods?? Thanks for any tips..........

[DrTimPerkins]

Millions of trees that have been tapped for years provide fairly decent evidence that tapping (if done properly) causes no extreme harm to trees. Does tapping reduce growth....maybe...but does it really matter if they are growing a little more slowly?

In any case...yes, it takes years (or decades) for the research to be done. All I can tell you at this point is that the study to look precisely at this was started about 5 yrs ago. We may have some interim results that we'll start talking about at meetings this coming winter, but the full study probably won't be finished for another 5 yrs.