Removing Taps at end of Season from Reds

[Tuckeradams2012]

Odd question here that I should probably know the answer to. In my research red maples seem to bud earlier than other maple trees, so if there is a red maple on the line is it prudent to pull them early? And if so with the tap going into the tee, once you unplug it and set it into the tee will the line maintain vacuum?

[minehart gap]

I am hoping that others will comment here but in my experience, red maple will simply stop flowing before the sap goes buddy.

[Kh7722]

That is what i have noticed happens.

I am hoping that others will comment here but in my experience, red maple will simply stop flowing before the sap goes buddy.

[john henry]

I set out @ 1,200+ taps and close to half of them are Red Maples. I am in Southern PA and have never pulled the Red Maples before my Sugar Maples on tubing or buckets. IT has never caused an off favor or buddy issue in my 10+ years of sugaring. Like it was mentioned they just quit flowing for me.

[JoeJ]

In 2010 I decided to try pulling the taps on my red maples to try to extend the season without worrying about buddy syrup. I pulled the reds 6 days before my last boil. At the time, I had 924 taps and pulled the 164 taps on red maples, about 17% of my trees. 35% of my syrup was commercial syrup any way and I did not note if there was any buddy syrup. My analysis was that by pulling the taps on the red maples I just reduced the amount of syrup that I made and have not pulled any red maple taps since.
I added 2,200 taps in a new woods in 2014 with 48% of the trees being red maple. I could not find my syrup sales records for 2014, but in 2015 I made 92 gallons of commercial syrup "With a late flavor" descriptor on the slip by the buyer. For the next 5 seasons, including 2020, I have not made a drop of any bad tasting syrup, commercial syrup or "late flavor syrup". I might attribute this to not collecting sap as late in the season as when I started. The first nine seasons, my last boil averaged April 11 with 5 dates above the average and the last seven seasons my last boil averaged April 8 with 3 dates above the average.

Joe

[buckeye gold]

My experience is the same, they just quit flowing

[DrTimPerkins]

My experience is the same, they just quit flowing

Same. About 1/3 of our taps are red maple. We don't untap them.

Red maple flower buds open early in the spring. These are not the same as vegetative buds. We rarely ever encounter buddy syrup. Typically the season ends due to sap flow slow-down or stoppage.

For us, the end of the season is usually indicated by frogs...typically within a day of when sap either stops running, or it runs so slowly it sours in the lines.

[Tuckeradams2012]

Perfect. Love to hear the feedback, I want to extend my season for as long as I could and it sounds like this will allow me to do so! Appreciate you all!

[TapTapTap]

I hear what you all are saying about the reds shutting off and buddiness never really happening. However, my late season experiences are typically an increasingly darker syrup and greater effort to clean my rig. I normally attribute these conditions to the soft maples (I'm about 40% by tap count). I also see a rosy-pink color on the filter papers which I attribute to the soft maples starting to bud. Am I wrong?

I'm currently adding about 600 taps on a 100% hard maple sugarbush and I'm going to add a new releaser that will serve not just these new maples but most of other hard maples. The result will be that most of my soft maple trees will be isolated on the old releaser which will allow me to entirely switch over the hard maples for the end of season. I'm hoping that this will allow me to extend the season by another boil or two with good quality/"lighter" grade syrup.

[DrTimPerkins]

I hear what you all are saying about the reds shutting off and buddiness never really happening. However, my late season experiences are typically an increasingly darker syrup and greater effort to clean my rig. I normally attribute these conditions to the soft maples (I'm about 40% by tap count). I also see a rosy-pink color on the filter papers which I attribute to the soft maples starting to bud. Am I wrong?

Typically in late season syrup will be darker and stronger tasting, whether with red or sugar maple. Niter typically increases in late season also. Those are both the regular trend and not really attributable to red vs sugar.

The more typical concerns are timing of buddy off-flavor (no direct scientific evidence), lower sugar content in red maple (some evidence under gravity conditions, but very old research), and perhaps more variability in sap yield and sugar content and somewhat higher internal staining (mixed evidence, mostly pointing towards "no"). There is also some suggestion that red maple syrup and sugar maple syrup have a somewhat different flavor profile. Give Dr. Abby another three years and she'll be able to tell you.