how to tap a maple tree

Look for unblemished bark and don’t bore too close to an older tap-hole. In the spring, the sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum) does something magical. Hooks. You might be hiking out to your trees up to your ankles in mud with rain pouring heavily upon your shoulders, but the sap buckets must be check and poured into a storage container. Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) The sugar maple yields the highest volume and concentration of sap, making it a superior candidate for tapping. Anything under 21″ will only take one tap. If you’re only placing one tap, you will want it on the south side of the tree. • Sycamore – Sap from this tree has a yummy butterscotch flavor. We’ll be tapping birch trees this year as well, but it takes many more birches to get the same amount of syrup. Hard maple varieties begin letting loose of their seeds usually in either the late summer or early autumn. This are your “taps”. Soft maple varieties tend to drop their seeds in either the early days of summer, or the final weeks of spring. The maple tree tapping season generally runs for approximately four to six weeks. The Plateau Native American tribes often tapped the Rocky Mountain Maple tree for sugar and syrup. You’ll be mighty disappointed if you don’t have a way to hang them. If the maple tree measures 8”-18” one tap can be made in the tree. Black maple (Acer nigrum) Black maples produce as much sweet sap as sugar maples. • Sugar – This is the “go to” tree for tapping. To make the hole through which sap will flow, you’ll need a drill. 7. Of course, like most things, timing is everything with tapping. The sugar and syrup produced from this variety is incredibly sweet and delicious. University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator Kathy Hopkins discusses the best method to safely tap a maple tree. When you start tapping, you’re actually drilling a hole into the trunk of the tree with a power drill. Drink sap straight from the maple. Generally, a single tree can be tapped up to three times before you have to move on to another one. It’s that time of year again, fellow homesteaders… tree tapping time! If you’ve tapped the tree in previous years, do not tap within 6″ of the previous holes. Most tappers recommend drilling the tapping hole on the southern facing side of the tree, beneath a large branch. Maple trees have what we dubbed “helicopters” when growing up. Jan 16, 2017 - Explore Heather Clower's board "Tapping maple trees", followed by 161 people on Pinterest. Trees are best tapped when the temperature is warm during the day and cold at night. Some days, your buckets might be almost overflowing when you hike out to check them, but other days you might find only a very small amount of sap in the bottom of the bucket or bag. We are the leading site for home based maple sugaring, the process of sap collection and making maple syrup. 10 Essential Crops for a Self Sufficient Garden. This task is fairly easy. You need to make sure you’re ready. That means you’re going to need some supplies. You want the temperature to alternate above freezing in the day, and below freezing at night. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Look for a maple tree that is at least 12 inches in diameter and has a lot of direct sunlight. Unless you purchase a maple sugar starter kit like this one. For example, a tree more than 15″ in diameter can handle 2 taps, and 20″ can handle 3 taps, etc…. A lot of times you will tap a tree that you think is a maple tree going to find out that there’s no SAP the reason why there’s no SAP is that it’s probably not a maple. Leaves from soft maple trees are usually a light greenish or yellow-green color. Drill the tapping hole. You’ll be glad you did. How you collect and boil sap can look pretty different depending on the kind of setup you have, but the first step, tapping, is pretty universal. You can run it through a cheesecloth or similar to remove any impurities that found their way in. For huge trees above 27 inches in diameter, use three taps when collecting sap. • If this is your first time tapping a tree for syrup, do not be startled by the color of the fluid running out of the tree. • Paper Birch – This type of birch tree has a 1% sugar count and is among a favorite for tappers who expand their efforts beyond the maple variety. The size of the drill bit depends on the size of your tap (also known as a spile). You tap maple trees in the spring when the temperatures are getting warmer. It is the combination of the chilly night time temperatures and the warm daytime temperatures that causes the sap to flow both easily and fairly rapidly, from the trees. 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