Olde wives' tales about sugaring

[ecp]

I wouldn't say science alters the truth, just makes different truths more evident.

Thats a fair statement. Sorry for the confusion.

[Andy VT]

Dr Tim, I was wondering if you could expand on the organic tale/(truth).
For that one, I'm not seeing the difference between what is outside the paratheses, and inside.

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr Tim, I was wondering if you could expand on the organic tale/(truth).
For that one, I'm not seeing the difference between what is outside the paratheses, and inside.

There are many subtle differences in practice, but the major differences are in documentation and inspection to verify that you are using sustainable practices (a minimum tapping size, no nails or hooks in trees, not-overtapping), that you are using an organic defoamer and aren't using things like (non-organic) fertilizers, insecticides or paint on trees in your sugarbush, that you have a forest management plan that promotes species diversity in your woods, that your equipment is suitable (low or no lead, suitable plastics, rubber, etc.). You can't use the Zap-Bac spout and be organic certified (due to the nano-carrier employed in this technology). Conventional operations may do all (or most) of the same things, but there doesn't need to be documentation and there generally is no inspection to verify what you're doing.

The other difference is the fee you pay to be organic certified (some of it reimbursed by various state/federal programs) and the organic premium you receive for your syrup.

Note that I'm NOT saying conventional syrup is not as good as organic. However, a good share of the maple syrup market wants organic-certified maple syrup and is willing to pay the additional cost. The customer gets what they want and the economics are often quite favorable to the maple producer.

[Galena]

How about (my comments in parentheses)?

Always tap on the south side of the tree (wrong).
Only tap over a large root or under a large branch (wrong).
Vacuum damages trees (wrong)

And surely to be hot topics....

Non-RO syrup tastes better than RO syrup (not borne out by research including blind taste-testing).
Syrup made over a wood fire is better than syrup over an oil fire (no research done, but if you syrup has a smoky flavor, it is technically off-flavor).
Conventional syrup (non-organic) syrup is the same as organic syrup (there may be differences, but most pertain to sustainability and record-keeping)
Tapping doesn't harm trees (tapping creates a small wound which is ok and the tree will recover well if tapping is done sustainably).
Cutting trees is more profitable than tapping (depends on the time period you look at...but in the long run, maple syrup production is more profitable).

Ooh a plethora of tales, both old and new! Well, I have tapped the S side religiously for the most part. One of my best trees' best spile was the hottest one by far; the W and N spiles did nothin. About 30m away a really good tree, also tapped W, N and S has had very little from the S spile and not much from the W either. Only the N spile did anything. Go figure.

My trees' roots don't really show. I pay more attention to whether or not where I am tapping is leading into a burl. I finally paid attention to a favourite tree and noticed burls - small, but still there - on the N and S sides. So i tapped E (GASP!!) and W. That tree on 2 spiles was consistently one of the top producers, even on bigger trees with 3 spiles.

Vacuum damaging trees....well, maybe they don't damage the trees but my own belief system supports only taking what I get. Seeing that I had over 800l in 5 weeks' time, from only 8 trees....I think I'll stick with my sharkfins, aluminum pails and passive tapping.

Non-RO vs RO, wood fire vs oil fire...all non-starters imnsho.

I know that the way I run my trees basically qualifies my practices as organic, but I don't call it organic. Being organic requires too many hoops n barrels, I'm busy enough!

The only time I've seen tapping to harm trees was when people - even now - porcupined a tree, then wondered why it got infected and died.

Hmmm....feling maples over tapping...well the price of wood products has gone up but syrup is still a hawt commodity, probably even moreso with global warming cutting the season short. I keep my trees standing unless tere is no option.

[DrTimPerkins]

Well, I have tapped the S side religiously for the most part.

This is a very common misconception. Research has shown that when you measure sap flow over several seasons, the average yield is basically the same from each side. So why do people think the south side is better....who knows? It may be that early in the season, the sap flows best on the south. Since people are watching for sap flows more earlier in the season, they see sap in the buckets on the south, but none on the north. What they don't recognize so deeply is that the sap also stops flowing on the south earlier in the season, but keeps flowing on the north side.

The best practice is to spread the taphole all around the stem.

[Galena]

This is a very common misconception. Research has shown that when you measure sap flow over several seasons, the average yield is basically the same from each side. So why do people think the south side is better....who knows? It may be that early in the season, the sap flows best on the south. Since people are watching for sap flows more earlier in the season, they see sap in the buckets on the south, but none on the north. What they don't recognize so deeply is that the sap also stops flowing on the south earlier in the season, but keeps flowing on the north side.

The best practice is to spread the taphole all around the stem.

Thanks for the feedback, Dr Tim. Will definitely am going to be doing more tapping all around the stem, as you suggest. Think I based my S side idea on my experience in the horse world, where run-in sheds are positioned so that the NEW sides are sheltered but the S side left open. I definitely had hot spiles (all on different trees) on all directions, even the one tree that had an E spile, which I always thought would be a colder side. Just glad my trees are finally dry and I can pull the spiles and then tackle cleanup.