"Super Sweet" saplings?

[twinhullstwo]

The biggest ones are between 8"to10" DBH.
Sugar content has been typically 4% and higher.A few 6%range.I do attribute a lot of it do to good soil conditions and open crowns.
I was quite pleased to see last fall quite a few of them produced seeds for the first time!
And yes,I had to collect some of the seeds.
This nursery is a little over 3 acres.

[maple flats]

I wonder if those seeds will yield super sweets, my guess would be not necessarily, some maybe yes, others and the majority likely no. When you plant them, let us know after maybe 8-10 years.

[DrTimPerkins]

I wonder if those seeds will yield super sweets, my guess would be not necessarily, some maybe yes, others and the majority likely no. When you plant them, let us know after maybe 8-10 years.

That answer is about as good as it gets. The heritability of the sweet tree trait is modest at best, so with open pollenated trees, while the mother tree may be known to be sweet, the qualities of the father are unknown. So the odds are that the father will be average, the mother sweet, and the offspring, on average, a little sweeter than normal, but not a lot.

[Michael Greer]

I planted a couple of the St Lawrence Nursery "Sweet Sap Silvers" about 10 years ago in a waterlogged spot. They are thriving, and will be ready to tap in a few years. I've also dug and transplanted a number of Sugar Maples from the woods and have had very pleasing success. It should be noted that any transplanted tree has to be consistently watered for it's first year with no slip-ups. A three foot tree with a 1/2" trunk is WAY easier to move than one that's 6 or 7 Ft., and they recover faster.

[Spanielslovesappin]

So i have planted over 200 Cornell super sweet trees in the last 15 years all into fields or 10-15 feet out of the woods. I originally was getting bare root seedlings direct from Cornell and had bad luck with them, 10 trees have survived out of the original Cornell 100 BUT the ones that made it did very well. I am in poor heavy clay soil. That said its not really the fault of the trees; I was negligent in mowing and fertilizing the trees each year and i also did not know that golden rod would out compete and more or less kill the seedlings. My survivability rate was better but i pulled the stakes and growth tubes on 10' tall trees and and a buck went and rubbed the bark off them!

I have 100 Korest Kneeling Supersweet RPM trees that i planted 4 years ago. They are not inexpensive BUT they are worth it in terms of survivability and speed of growth; the root balls are massive. Of course due to the cost i have put more effort into these. The only looses i had with the RPM trees have been caused by human interference. Additionally i attempted to plant 5 into relatively bare spots in my woods but they failed i think due to the fact the we had a dry summer the first year and the older trees just out competed them.

My recipe for success involves a bit of effort but works.
Prep the bed for planting with a tiller
Put down a weed mat
Use a 6' growth tube.
Support the tube with rebar preferably longer than the tube.
Add a 24" chicken wire to the top of the tube to protect the tree from browsing. and prune so one leader get above the brows line ASAP.
Once you remove the growth tube (if you do,) leave the Rebar! Deer won't strip the bark and seem to not like to touch the bar.
Use 1 time release fertilizer stake each spring (follow directions, 30" from tree!)

I have 4 year old FK RPM Sweet trees that are over 12' tall.

I have also planted other FK RPM seedlings, they grow really well.

[DrTimPerkins]

We have likewise planted Cornell seedlings and Forest Keeling RPM seedlings, as well as some from St. Lawrence. In our soils (spodosols, sandy/till) our success has been spotty. Some seedlings do well, some not at all. We drilled holes, put in some peat moss and fertilizer, planted, and put up deer exclusion fencing all around. Watered them periodically during the first summer.

In the photo below, FK RPM seedlings did well and Cornell seedlings did well, but the St. Lawrence Silver Maples did not. Probably the soils at this site are not appropriate for silver maple. They started about 18-24" tall, but are 10-15' tall now. Not sure what we're going to do with them at this point, but thinking we may transplant them and spread them out throughout this entire field.

harvey road plantation.jpg

In our other plantation all the seedlings did well, even without deer fencing.