I too have been worried about this. Although the first emergence on our sugars were pollen nodes, leaves were behind those just a little and open only about 10% of the way, so I'm hoping they weren't far enough along to hurt much. They do seem to be continuing to grow so that must be a good sign.

So I've noticed about 80-90% of trees started off early with pollen nodes, this started around first of April while finishing up boiling. We had all thought they were leaf buds but those came after the pollen nodes. Will these pollen nodes affect flavor as the leaf buds will. Also noticed the other 10 to 20% did not start off with the pollen nodes. I questioned if these trees we're not as healthy so they budded later, or as I understand maple trees have a sex to them and perhaps this is what that represents. I've noticed that these slower trees are now breaking bud and going right to Leaf no pollen nodes. I can only assume that these are the other gender and do not contain pollen- just things that catch my eye and make me wonder why.