sap yield

Out of the Woods Seminar

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The Out of the Woods series from Future Generations University in West Virginia hit an important topic several weeks ago, and the recording of “Two Seasons – Sanitation & Tubing“ is now available as a Recording.

The Talk Title “Two Seasons” is a play on this quote from Garnet Whetzel.

“There are only two seasons in a year.  Maple season and getting ready for maple season.”

I am quite sure that every single maple producer exists in this shared reality – the list of things to do is almost certainly greater than the amount of time you have for working on your list.  But there a few things on your annual list that you just cannot afford to ignore!  Keep in mind that a good chunk of this presentation assumes a 3/16th tubing system, but there are lots of great lessons to be learned from the talk.  Chiefly this, compelling evidence is shared on the benefits of sanitation (using the Krueger method with calcium hypochlorite) from a nice experiment out of the Mountain State.  Results from this experiment are followed by a great discussion on the bacteria, yeast, and mold challenges that maple producers face in the woods and in the sugarhouse.

Sap Yields: Why CODIT and Non-Conductive Wood Matter

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CODIT stands for Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees, and sugar maples are darn good at CODIT!  Mark Isselhardt, during the 2021 virtual Ohio Society of American Foresters spring meeting, gave an excellent microscopic and physiological explanation of how maple trees wall off and seal up old tapholes.

Why does understanding compartmentalization matter to a maple producer?  Compartmentalization creates the all-important non-conductive wood that sugarmakers try to avoid with each year’s new taphole.  And just in case you were wondering – how much does it matter?  Through work conducted at University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center, Mark Isselhardt document sap yield declines of 70-75% when a taphole intersects non-conductive wood.

Time Lapse ACER Research

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Watch this time lapse video of maple research taking place at the Ohio State Sugarbush located on the OSU Mansfield Campus.

Across 13 racks with 5, 6, or 7 canisters each, the OSU maple team emptied sap to monitor individual tree yield and sap sugar content…daily! The 75 research canisters will help us answer questions about how red x silver hybrid trees (Acer freemanii or “rilver” for short) compare to sugar maple production standards. The PVC canisters are a new design engineered by the team, and vacuum consistently achieved levels in the 22-25 pounds range. A drill pump mounted on a standard cordless drill boosted our sampling efficiency, and a digital Misco refractometer handled sugar readings.

While the data won’t be formally analyzed for a bit, we were surprised just how variable individual trees performed based on sap volume as well as sap sweetness. A couple trees achieved sugar content readings over 3 even at the end of the season. While other trees struggled to break 1.2 or 1.3% all season. For yield, 2-3 gallons a day was average for some trees. Normal for others amounted to just 1 or 2 quarts. The team is pulling down the research equipment now for off-season storage.

Stay tuned for updates.

Author: Gabe Karns, OSU Mansfield & SENR