I'm in southernmost Ohio, I have mostly sugars, 350 or so a few dozen reds, 4 natural freemans and 170 silvers. I just cut down a 6" dbh silver next to my driveway that was a finger sized sprout when we moved here in May 16. I tapped the silvers the year before last, they are all on a creek bank and are huge, large canopied trees. Althought they are level, I run them on 3/16 tubing with shurflo pumps, and the sap from them averaged 2.2% while my maples and reds are in thick timber, tall and skinny with small canopies, they start out at 1.6% the last 8 years I've tapped. My silvers don't run every day the hillside trees do, I'm guessing the large creek they are on is a heat sink and they are 2-4x the diameter of my hill trees. But when they do run, they put out almost 2 gpt on the shurflos with 25in/Hg. Silvers grow faster than sugars and reds, but are short lived, and brittle. When one limb gets broken off the main trunk, they rot and the trunk will follow. My folks bought this farm in 1987, and many of the average sized silvers that were here when we moved are long gone. I have been boiling on silver maple wood for the last three years, just too many of em for me to leave to rot when they uproot, or one even washed down the creek, we pulled it out, sawed it up and split it. I am really lookin forward to boilin on hickory and oak this year.
Last edited by bmbmkr; 11-14-2024 at 05:18 PM.
'12 15 jugs - Steam pans
'17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
'18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
'19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
'20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
'21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
'22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
'23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
'24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO