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Glad to See It Come, Glad to See It Go
Thanks for Les’ contribution last Monday in his post – Is February the New March? This is a more Mansfield-centric take on the 2024 season with a more in-depth analysis of statewide Growing Degree Days to compliment last week’s content.
What a season! That sums it up in all the best and worst ways. I stand by the words I typed in my 2/19 post – I believe we nailed our tapping date just about perfect. The first run to follow was a marathon of 7 or 8 straight days, and the second run of the year culminated in our making syrup off the new OSU teaching evaporator for the first time ever. Though many producers’ woods performed below average in terms of sap sugar, our Brix registered consistently at 2.0. Talk about some highs.
We knew better. The weather folks are not infallible, but there was no denying the forecast that lurked. Warm, warm, and more warm. But unexpectedly, February 21st was the death blow for our season. While we were over at Malabar Farms helping out with an NRCS workshop on maple, our pump decided to quit working. Without vacuum, the productive days of our season were over. With a full season, we would likely have stayed tapped in until March 4th and posted one of our better season totals. As it turned out in reality, the 2024 season ended on a low.
Looking more broadly around the state, the progression of Growing Degree Days (GDDs) was alarmingly early yet again. If there any producers still resistant to the idea of tapping earlier than more traditional dates, then I don’t know what it will take to change minds.
Observe – Click Play for an animation of GDDs from 2021 (below). Pay attention to 2 data points in particular. First, the GDDs accumulated through March. Second, the scale of GDDs on the legend.
Now, you don’t even need to see a similar video of 2024’s GDDs to know we covered lots more ground in fewer days than the previous year’s example. Long story short, earlier AND hotter. Hello sap season double whammy, goodbye sanitation! I don’t believe many producers will be heard pining – “Boy! What I wouldn’t give for another season like 2024!” And if you did hear such a remark today, then you probably also heard them quip – April Fool’s!!
Is February the New March?
Remember when Les said he would come back at the season’s conclusion to tell you in 20/20 hindsight exactly what you may already suspect, he’s back to make some sense of the 2024 sugaring season! Enjoy.
The Ohio maple syrup season ended on the first weekend in March. This comes less than a week after President’s Day, the traditional starting date for the season in Ohio. Of course, not this year as many Ohio producers started the 2024 season in January. If you are a maple producer, you must wonder if the climatologist and everything we have been hearing about our climate is right. Is February becoming the new March?
Let’s analyze what we have seen and experienced in 2024. OSU Climatologist Dr. Aaron Wilson has been telling us that the winters will get milder, and Spring will come earlier. Once again, I refer to historical weather data to make a point using Weather Underground weather history maps. Dating back to 2021, here is what I consider a relatively normal March (below).
Here is February of this year, 2024 (below).
It has been reported over the last several months that we ended 2023 with almost record-breaking high temperatures for November and December. In fact, the climatological winter (December, January, and February) was the third warmest on record. The 2nd warmest occurred in 1931. The warm weather sent a warning to many maple producers, alerting them that something unusual was about to happen. In Ohio, those that tapped in mid-January got it right. Those tapping right after the first of the year were rewarded with 6 to 8 weeks of maple producing weather. Many recorded over 14 boils before the first of March. This year undoubtedly sets a new benchmark for early tapping. Why did this happen and what can we learn from the experience.
The winter of 2023/24 followed the long-range forecast’s prediction. With the exception of the invasion of a cold air mass in mid-January, the mild temperatures came back and continued throughout February. This set up some extraordinarily good runs throughout the state. However, a troubling and confounding factor was the overall lack of moisture. I would say that many parts of Ohio were below average on moisture during this period. Dryness in the woods is not good for maple production. It is much preferred to have 4 to 8 inches of slowly melting snow, at the very least, lots of rainy days interspersed through the season. I have seen woods that face north where the snowpack will last almost to the end of March. These woods have produced good runs all the way to the end of March and even into April. Not this year.
Here is the graph (above) showing the high, low, and average temperatures for the first two weeks in March. The important thing to look at here is the minimum and maximum temperatures that clearly show we not only had daytime temperatures in the first two weeks March above 50 degrees F, but also had nighttime temperatures that approached and even hit 50 degrees. This totally wiped out the freeze/thaw cycle, and we all know you cannot make syrup without a freeze/thaw cycle. Sustained temperatures above freezing will undoubtedly be a recurring problem into the future. Warm temperatures also accelerates the accumulation of Growing Degree Days, pushing the trees toward budding. However, buddy sap did not end the season in much of Ohio. It was the acceleration of microbial growth resulting from an abundance of unseasonably warm temperatures causing the sap to warm and foul systems. It is almost impossible to make quality syrup under these conditions. During the Ohio Maple Tour, I tasted multiple samples of syrup made in early March. Just about all had that sharp taste of syrup made from sour sap.
Now comes the real challenge! How do we prevent the possibility of this very marginal syrup from entering the market? Especially in a year when many producers in states like Ohio had a poor year and now have syrup of questionable quality to sell. Do you bottle the syrup and hope no one notices? After all, it may have good color somewhere between Amber and Dark Robust. The rationale in the past has been that most customers will not pick up on the off flavor; after all, they are used to high fructose corn syrup imitations. The question now turns becomes, how much high-quality syrup will be made in the Northeast and in Canada this year? Will the syrup they sell to the big box stores have better quality than what our customers can buy locally? We already know it will most likely be less expensive.
In the end what have we learn? We added one more year to the string of abnormally warm maple seasons that we have experienced over the last 5 years. For Ohio producers tapped in January, many experienced a near normal season. Operations made some very good syrup that did not have quality issues. Their markets are covered. This also means that in 2025 when New Years Day rolls around, those producers who gambled right in 2024 will again be ready to tap trees at the first signal of good sugaring weather. Unfortunately for many Ohio producers tapping later in the calendar, this year will be a hard lesson. Those that tapped after mid-February found out that you cannot trust Mother Nature, because she does not read the Calendar.
Maple Events on the Horizon
Join Associate Professor, Dr. Stephen Matthews to learn about USDA Forest Service’s Climate Change Atlas. He will introduce this tool that is based on over 2 decades of research with a goal to help us understand the impact of climate change on our trees. When you have heard us talk about red maple’s favorable position in the face of an uncertain future, the work of the Climate Change Atlas is what we are drawing from. Register for the April 12th webinar HERE.
Future Generations University is offering a webinar this Thursday evening, March 21st at 7 PM. The Appalachian-based program Out of the Woods hosts guest speaker Dr. Catherine Belisle (Cornell University) and Lindsay Kazarick (Future Generations University) to discuss maple confections and event-based marketing. REGISTER here.
Here’s a little bonus video to enjoy featuring Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest in New York.
SAVE THE DATE for 2024’s Ohio Maple Days – December 7. We will be shifting locations this year due to a scheduling conflict at our normal venue at Ashland University. You can look forward to this year’s Ohio Maple Days landing at Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum.
And speaking of events, we hope everyone got to participate in Ohio’s Maple Madness Tour. Whether by opening up your own operation to visitors or by venturing out on the tour yourself, Maple Madness is a signature springtime event that should not be missed. We hosted somewhere just shy of 100 folks throughout Saturday, March 2nd at the Ohio State Mansfield campus. Thanks to all who came, and a BIG THANKS to everyone who led tours of the wetlands, sugarbush, and kept the evaporator steaming all day long.
Tapping & Timber: Monthly Maple REVIEW
After a several months long hiatus from our REVIEW articles, we are going to dive back into a Quebec research 2’fer that examines the effects of tapping on sugar maple tree growth rate and timber accumulation. The Ohio State Maple team hosted a day’s worth of Maple Madness as a stop along the Ohio Tour less than 48 hours ago. While giving sugarbush tours, hands down the most frequent question I fielded was whether tapping hurts the trees. While some research has attempted to answer this question over the past decade or so, 2 relatively new studies out of Quebec take aim on this subject.
The question “does tapping hurt a maple tree?” can be answered from multiple different perspectives. You might respond by citing information about the small percentage of a maple tree’s overall sap that is harvested through the tapping process, even with a high vacuum system. You might make an analogy that a taphole is similar to an insignificant injury and point out that healed tapholes are barely visible to the eye just a year or less later and the percentage of compartmentalized wood is miniscule. You might have another way of replying to that question. The article “Effect of tapping for syrup production on sugar maple tree growth in the Quebec Appalachians” and the paper “Assessing the effects of sugar maple tapping on lumber production” provide additional insights to this delicate topic.
Before we dive in, a few caveats:
- Caveat #1 – this issue has been addressed by different studies through different research labs through time, I’m examining these 2 studies today because they are recent and both from the same geographic area, Quebec. Perhaps we will address some of the other work conducted in this space in future REVIEW articles.
- Caveat #2 – The studies are from Quebec. Stated another way, these studies are not directly applicable to Ohio, but we can certainly learn from them regardless.
- Caveat #3 – both studies are based on tapping recommendations that encourage tapping to begin when a tree is 7.5-9.1 inches in diameter. This recommendation in comparison to more conservation guidelines that we teach locally of 10″ minimum before tapping layered in with the fact that growth productivity is higher in Ohio than Quebec, and we have additional reason to not assume 1 to 1 transferability of results.
The study that focuses on tree growth rates was conducted by a foursome of researchers (Ouimet et al.) back in 2021. They examined tapped and untapped trees within 7 Quebec maple woods on vacuum tubing systems. The normal stringent criteria were applied to ensure trees in each group were as similar as could be except for the main treatment variable: tapped or not tapped. Ouimet and crew worked off a primary hypothesis that tapping sugar maple trees would remove enough of the non-structural carbohydrates (sugars) that tree growth rates would be higher in untapped trees versus tapped trees. Restating their hypothesis another way, extracting sap from sugar maples is in direct competition with resources needed for tree growth.
What did they find? In 6 of the 7 sugar bushes, there was no effect of tapping on tree growth rates. In the 7th site however, tapped trees grew 33% slower over the tapped year period (10 years) than did the untapped trees. A partial explanation seemed to be that soils in that particular forest were strongly Ca-deficient; however, similar decreases in tree growth rate were not observed in 2 other woods that also suffered from low Ca levels. Truth to be told, the team was scratching their heads a bit over the inconsistent results stating the “relatively small NSC [non-structural carbohydrates] allocation to syrup production might explain why we did not find a consistent tree growth response to tapping.” In the most elementary of terms, tapping did not seem to trouble the majority of trees in the study.
The second study coincidentally also featured a four-person research team, and the research utilized data from 17 different sites within Quebec’s public forests. Forest stand management scenarios (how and when to harvest trees) and lumber yields were simulated using a model that gathered data from over 2 thousand individual trees. If taphole-stained maple lumber does in fact have niche value in local and regional niche markets, I would quibble with blanket statements such as the one they provide in the Introduction citing the National Hardwood Lumber Association – “Tap holes are considered defects, and they diminish the manufacturing value of boards.” But the purpose of the work is clear, does tapping affect traditional lumber value of sugar maple logs?
Photo: Firth Hardwood Export Logs
What did they find? Unsurprisingly, the answer is yes. Of course tapping reduces net lumber volume in sugar maples, and tapping reduces the probability of an individual tree yielding a 10 foot saw log. The details are what I found especially interesting. Trees in the study were binned into 4 different health categories. Trees with fungal infections, rot, or noticeable crown dieback were impacted by tapping more than trees that were healthy by visual measures. While this too is unsurprising, I was most impressed by the findings that tapped sugar maples have a 85-90% chance of still yielding a 10′ saw log. However, net lumber volume is still markedly reduced by tapping as the vertical segment of the trunk sectioned by the lowest and highest tapholes (or “butt log”) is defect. Guillemette et al. concede in the very first paragraph of the Discussion that their results do not account for “craftspeople sometimes use these butt logs to produce boards with specific features resulting from tap holes or stain.” I appreciated this admission. Even so under a more traditional notion of what is valuable maple lumber, a notable rule of thumb emerges from their Implications for Management. “Tapping reduces the net standing volume of sugar maple timber by approximately 40% and reduces the harvestable volume after the first 30-year cycle by approximately 40%.” Economic modelling of one-time profits due to timbering need to be compared to the year-over-year return on investment from sugaring a maple woods, but the study does provide some interesting ways to frame and think about our original question – does tapping hurt a maple tree?
Ohio Maple NPR Soundbyte
You are never quite sure how a piece of media coverage will turn out after a couple of hours of interaction gets boiled down (yes, that’s a pun) to 4 minutes and 30 seconds. But I’d say the NPR creative machine did a great job churning out something engaging that highlights work across the state from the past, present, and even into the future.
This is as good of a time as any to remind everyone of Ohio’s Maple Madness weekends on March 2-3 and March 9-10. You can scan the following QR code off your monitor or visit the Tour Map to plot your own route.
At Ohio State Mansfield, we will be hosting our Maple Madness event on Saturday, March 2nd – we hope to see you there. Come hungry!
Mid Season Update & Cornell’s Maple Climate Network
Our sap season at the OSU-Mansfield sugarbush is well underway after tapping trees beginning January 29 and officially collecting sap by February 1. While I still have time to change my mind, my current belief is that we nailed the “When should we tap” question with the right answer this year. Our first run was a solid week long with solid nightly resets below freezing as this forecast basically fulfilled itself just like the weather prognosticators predicted. Though overall sap volume was not as productive as it could have been, sap Brix started off at 2.1 and stayed ready right around 2.0. By the end of the first run and through roughly Valentine’s Day, the woods got downright crunchy and dry highlighted by a few days that pushed temperatures almost up to 60 F. During a second run of several days, flows remained average at best but Brix still hovered at a good sap: syrup making ratio.
As far as growing degree days go, we are almost exactly halfway to seeing silver maples break bud, and the rest of February and first couple days of March as currently forecast will likely push us right up to that threshold. If I had to guess, we will be shutting off a couple main lines that are heavy “Rilver” (red x silver hybrids) in the March 1-5th range and hoping for another week or two production out of our sugar maples.
While there are a few nights with temperatures forecast for the low-mid 20s, it appears the OSU-Mansfield sugarbush will spend more nights above freezing as February drags into March.
Checking forecasts further north in towns like Chardon, Middlefield, and Geneva, all the way north to Ashtabula on the lakeshore, most nighttime temps are currently sitting on the wrong side of 32 Fahrenheit and the next 2 weeks offer only a few opportunities at hard overnight resets to stimulate good sap flows. What March holds in store, I certainly don’t know. And if another great sugaring weather pattern emerges, will our taps still be putting out lots of high quality sap if and when that occurs? What I do know is this – Mother Nature has always and will continue to be the one holding the cards. Even if my hindsight is happy with our initial tapping dates and I don’t eventually wish for a do-over, that is still no guarantee of a banner season.
As this year’s season ticks along, we’re excited to have an Ohio maple producer in Geauga County hosting a tree monitoring system for Cornell’s Maple Climate Network database. You can track various metrics, such as Total Sap Production, Atmospheric Pressure, Tree Pressure, Rainfall, and Soil Moisture on this Dashboard. Just look for the legend indicator so you can focus on some Ohio data and watch the season unfold from a single sugar maple tree’s perspective. A great project with lots of potential, we’re glad Ohio can be a small part of the effort.
Buckeye Teaching Evaporator: The First Boil!
Exciting developments at the Ohio State University-Mansfield campus! We installed a teaching maple evaporator under our new pavilion near the research sugarbush and just completed our first boil last night. This step is fairly monumental for Ohio State Maple, and there isn’t anything quite like the feeling of seeing that first draw-off. Somehow we’ve got a grainy image of that moment last night to commemorate the experience!
First things first – a formal thank you to Roger and Suzie Gortner for continuing to do our production sap processing. They have made exceptional maple syrup from our OSU trees for the past 5 years and will continue to be instrumental in that regard. We literally could not do it without them, and we’re grateful that it’s an arrangement that works for both parties involved.
But now for the first time ever, we have our own evaporator. No, it is not sized to keep up with a production woods of almost 1,200 taps, but it is perfectly sized for demonstration boils on a teaching scale. With help from local producer Galen Smith from Mount Vernon, OH, our team set up an 18” x 66” drop flue evaporator early in winter of 2023-24. After a test boil to dummy out a few variables (or maybe to dummy out the dummies…us!?), we put fire under sap concentrate on Wednesday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day.
Four 5/16″ lines kept sap flowing from our larger sap tank into a holding chamber that our reverse osmosis unit was drawing off. We adjusted the PSI on our RO to almost perfectly sync and match the raw sap movement with our RO processing speed. After some adjustments to align the 2 processes, we were taking sap from 2.1 to 4.6 Brix concentrate. 6 hours later, we were halfway there…
Eventually, we crept up to 7 degrees F over the point of boiling water. You know what happens next.
A teaching evaporator with small-scale RO unit allows us to now teach via-demonstration tree-to-bottle workshops and seminars on an Ohio State campus, provide more complete tours for events like the upcoming Maple Madness event on Saturday, March 2nd (more on that in a second), and sets the table for a new Sustainability Theme GE course debuting in Spring of 2025 – Maple: A Sweet Taste of the Past, Present, & Future.
So yes, come visit us on Saturday, March 2nd at the OSU-Mansfield Maple Pavilion. We are excited to host folks for pancakes and syrup between 10 AM-1 PM, tours of the sugarbush and nearby vernal pool wetlands all day long until 5 PM, and good fellowship with one another for the Ohio Maple Madness Tour. Once you are on campus, just follow the signs!
We Are Tapped!
We had a great turnout of folks to help tap maple trees on Monday and Tuesday at the OSU-Mansfield sugarbush. A big thank you to Anthony Tambini and Rachel Coy – both former students who worked in the maple woods and returned for a fun day of tapping! My gratitude to Marne Titchenell who appreciates maple amidst the larger sphere of wildlife, her Extension expertise. Thank you Chelsea and Kris, current students who are working for me this semester. Of course, Carri and Jake were there helping as always, and it was great to have Katie Gerber, one of ODNR’s State Service Forester, who came to get some hands-on maple experience too! Many hands make light work and we are planning to shut the sap tank valve first thing in the morning and officially start our production season. Happy sugaring to everyone already tapped, and may your crystal ball of weather forecasts and prognostications be clear if you are still trying to decide when to tap.
SLF Sap Survey – Citizen Science Opportunity
If you are a maple producer located within 25-miles of a confirmed spotted lanternfly detection (and we have a good mailing address for you…big caveat!), you should be receiving an SLF kit in the mail today or certainly by the end of the week.
That kit will supply you with some helpful identification resources, a pickled SLF adult to call your very own, a postcard asking for a few Brix value readings from your maple trees, and a QR code link to an instructional video.
If you do not receive a citizen science kit, but you still want to participate, please do so. We would be honored to have you contribute.
First, download this file of the SLF Postcard (PDF).
Second, watch this instructional video.
Third, collect as much data as you can during your 2024 maple season.
Fourth, seal up your printed datasheet in an envelope and mail to me at:
Attn: Gabe Karns
Sch of Env & Nat Resources
2021 Coffey Road
210 Kottman Hall
Columbus, OH 43210
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reply to this post or shoot me an email at karns.36@osu.edu.