Quote Originally Posted by MikeC82 View Post
Hi Galena, For sure - we are very close. In fact, we used to live in Kemptville until about 2 years ago.

We have a real mix of trees silver, red and sugar - some huge ones must be 75 years old + Others much smaller. Tried to limit to tapping only 10-11 inches or larger. It's mixed bush with a lot of big pines mixed in - so it seems the maples have to grow really tall to get at the light. This seems to cut down on their girth overall. It takes them years and years to expand in width - but they grow higher and higher every year. My dad tapped about ten trees here over 30 years ago and he left the spigots in after accidentally burning the sap. Those trees have only grown out barely 1/2 inch around the old spigots since then. Very slow to grow.

We have a light problem here because the bush is so thick. Hard to get sun in- but I think you're right about the drainage. Most of the ones running early are right down near the creek/swampy area.

Mike
Hi Mike, sounds like it's your reds which are running first and of course they like swampier conditions....some friends of mine tap nothing but reds cause that's all they've got :-) Never tapped silvers, I hear they can be very capricious...either masses of sap or zilch. My bush is now all sugars - I did tap a couple reds but they never did much, so I stopped - and true to form my three little bush maples are taller more than wide. Don't have bush as thick as yours sounds, though, at least it doesn't affect the Surprises. My other trees are yard maples, the biggest tree needs at least two people to reach around her trunk. No tree takes more than 3 spiles. The bush sugars take only 1 apiece.

Expect your reds to peter out a good 2-4 weeks before your other maples. Reds start first and usually have a pretty low sap content. If you have mostly young trees you might want to compare notes with LesPetras, whose bush is mostly young trees and on a slope too.

Bet you're glad to have escaped KemptHaven....ugly little houses sprouting like mushrooms everywhere now :-( Glad the blight hasn't yet spread to my area too much *crossed fingers*