Dr. Tim's study on Maple saplings

[mrnorthshore]

Hi Dr Tim. Can you tell me how much sap was produced pre 2" sapling? Also how do you keep the bag from being sucked to the vac line? To bad that they dont make a food grade plumbing rubber test cap, might work good for this. Thanks
Paul

[DrTimPerkins]

The average yield for standard ~2% sap sugar content saplings around 2" is ~0.073 gal syrup equivalent per tap, however we think with improved caps we can significantly increase yields. The bag (which is not your average run-of-the-mill plastic bag) was kept from being sucked down flat against the top of the sapling using a small perforated disc. Again...a caution that this is probably not the way it would look in commercially produced devices, but rather something we could build ourselves without going to the high expense of producing a mold. We have learned more in the past couple of seasons....but just can't discuss it at this time.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Dr. Tim,
I'm not sure which study if any on your PMRC site are this study and I'd like to read your methods, findings, etc, So far all I've seen is the press story, which is very interesting but doesn't tell the tale. I can really see trying to figure out a way to do this at our place due to all the regrowth sprouts from logging. I understand it needs vacuum and will have to work on that.

Is this study and description of how you did the setup on your publications page? If, and only if you can share some more of this can you post a link or pdf. My apologies if I'm out of line for asking, and understand if it's still under study before you can release much.

and as others have said,Thank You PMRC.

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/?Page=publications.html

[DrTimPerkins]

Is this study and description of how you did the setup on your publications page?

There is nothing on our website about this, nor is there any more information out there about this other than the presentations we have done beginning in October 2013. I am sorry, but this is one of those times when sometimes it takes a while between when we start talking about some research and when it is written up and published. We've been doing work on this since the spring of 2010. The decision to start talking about it was made only a short time ago (at a pay grade far higher than mine). We are definitely considering writing a "how to" manual for this, which would be based upon what we know at this time (but we can only talk about what we know until the patent filing, March 2012)....realizing that there are still several things we'd like to investigate more. The EARLIEST I would imagine this could be done would be for the fall of 2014, but it probably won't happen until later than that. Much of the timing depends upon whether any maple equipment companies decide to license the intellectual property....but again, that isn't a decision I control.

[PATheron]

One thing Ive been wondering about with the saplings is this, I was of the understanding than a 5/16 hole stained roughly 18 inches up and down and sap wouldn't run in that stain again so you never would want to tap there but the staining seems to be less with totally cutting the tree off. What am I misunderstanding? Theron

[noreast maple]

The part that youre not tapping!!!!! you are cutting the whole top off and putting a bag of somesorts on then your line attaches to that. so you dont have a hole in youre tree you wont have as much staining because your tree is so small.

[killingworthmaple]

Dr. Tim Thank you very much for this research. This system may make it possiable for small backyard guys like me with not much land and very high land costs in the area to get in the game. My wife and I have been very interested in any info that you can talk about. The info that we are looking for the most right now is about the trees not how you are collecting the sap because if we plant trees this year we still have many years before we can "tap" them. So any more info about planting, size before tapping, spacing, pruning,would help with us making a decision. If we wait 2-5 years for all the research to be done and debated before we plant we would be a decade out. Again thank you very much.

Nathan

[DrTimPerkins]

... more info about planting, size before tapping, spacing, pruning,would help with us making a decision.

We can only tell you what we know at this time, and what we think might work well. We've been doing this only about 4 yrs, focusing mainly on the sap extraction, however we have also planted a large number of trees in that time. The problem is....they are all still pretty small (oldest has been in the ground only 2 yrs), so we don't have a lot of information about what you're asking for other than what we "think" might be the best way to do it.

[SevenCreeksSap]

There is nothing on our website about this, nor is there any more information out there about this other than the presentations we have done beginning in October 2013. I am sorry, but this is one of those times when sometimes it takes a while between when we start talking about some research and when it is written up and published.

Understood. I'll be looking forward to the rest of your findings and know it takes time. Just the idea and knowing it can be done gives me lots of brainstorms and thoughts of doing "testing" myself. Keep us posted!

[Flatlander]

Dr. Tim
I was rather intrigued with the article that was sent to me a couple of weeks ago. Here in the Midwest, where our predominate forest type in the uplands is oak/hickory, maple is a dirty word. Many foresters consider the species a weed to removed to keep the canopy open and allow sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor for good oak regen. On my farm, its a battle over keeping enough large sugar maples in certain areas to make it worth my while to try to tap and keeping the onslaught of maple saplings from taking over the entire area. Needless to say I have lots of saplings available.
We also have many major river systems in this state providing some great bottom land farm ground but many times marginal due to flooding, of course. Back in the early '90s, USDA came out with a new program entitled CREP. This program was meant to take this marginal farm ground out of production and back into natural riparian land cover. Besides getting a handsome sign up bonus, landowners get an annual rent payment. Contracts went from 15 years to permanent easement. Anyway, many of these acres have become populated with natural river bottom tree species including silver maple. I hear tell of a prof/grad student at SIU that was working on cloning a very high sugar content silver maple for landowners to plant in these areas for the sole purpose of providing a potential crop that the landowners could "harvest" legally off these acres. Syrup is one of a very few crops that would not violate the CREP contract.

So, when I saw this article, it raised quite a few questions.

The method of topping the sapling is interesting, but wouldn't drilling a 1/4" hole 90% the way through the sapling produce the same thing. Apparently the little bit of heartwood in the sapling is not of concern if you are topping the sapling. If we can vacuum sap from the far side of an 18" DBH tree than certainly you can get it from a 2" tree. I would also think trying to seal an irregular shaped topped sapling would be harder than a standard round hole. Instead of a standard tap, maybe one with a shorter length tap or maybe something alone the lines of a standard pipe saddle connection with a tie strap going around the sapling. The article did talk about stand density. 4 -5000 trees per acre is huge, 2.5' - 3' spacings. At .073 gals of syrup per sapling (doing quick math is = 2.25 gallons of sap per sapling). I envisioned as well managing multi-stemmed saplings. Can't get my head around trying to do this on flat ground though with all that tubing and little fall.

I can see where some might see this as an end to their mainstay of living. This would have the potential of opening up syrup production all through the midwest using silver maples. The onslaught of technology is scary for those of us used to doing something the same way. Just looking at my supply catalog today compared to 15 years ago is mind boggling.

I look forward to hearing more about your study and the results. Thanks again.