University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center & UVM Maple Extension. Videos related to maple tree research and maple syrup production.
Funding for some of the materials in this resource was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Acer Access and Development Grant AM170100XXXXG167. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the USDA.
Those zap-bac spouts are nothing to write home about. My first year with them they did ok but after that they were useless. I had a lot of biofilm build up on the inside of them half way through the second season (this year) and my sap yield slowed right down. In order to get the sap yield that I needed I did something that I hate. I reamed my tap holes. It only amounted to about an extra weeks worth of running but I got my production numbers up to where they needed to be. I don't want to do that again. Have to adopt a different plan. I know someone else that had great yields and they didn't use check valve spouts just new straight spouts (don't know about the drops). I keep looking at different ideas.
Tapholes should not be plugged, but rather should be left open for the tree to heal naturally. A plug that is inserted will soak up water and rot, causing more damage than if the wound is left unplugged. The tree will close the wound by growing new wood on the outside within a season or two.
I've used check valve spouts and regular spouts with vacuum (at the time, 5200 taps). I have not seen any difference in sap production in one vs the other.
Not at all. Essentially we are making the stem akin to a sugar-filled straw in the ground. By putting a strong vacuum on the cut stem, we are pulling water out of the soil and up through the stem and out of the cut top where we can collect the sweet sap and boil it down to make maple syrup.
Sap sugar content is comparable to a mature tree. This sapling was growing out in the open however. Sap collection from a 2" stem with 25" Hg vacuum will yield a little under a gallon of sap over the season. However, on a per acre basis, this style of collection will yield up to about 10X the amount of syrup compared to typical production in a high-density maple plantation.
In a plantation setting, the stem will vigorously resprout new branches just below the cut. The approach is to recut the stem about 5-6" below the original cut. Better yet, choose a multi-stemmed sapling and rotate to a different stem each year so it takes 4-6 yrs to return to the originally cut stem. For regenerating in woods, regrowth is less vigorous, but still happens. Basically, this resprouting is similar to what happens when saplings are browsed by deer. Many species (including maple) are well adapted to handle this. @@shawntobin-ii9cq
Great video I am fairly new to this so a lot of information. Why is using alcohol to clean your tabs in spouts illegal in the United States? What’s the big deal? Thanks Fred
Sanitizers are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Isopropyl Alcohol has not ever been registered with the EPA by the manufacturer for this use.
you can use a VAWT wind turbine attached to compressor and extract a lower quantity of sap, just decoupling the pump system with a sap level arduino alarm to your phone, so you can extract from lots of trees with no cost and little damage to the trees
Tapping into new wood is a good plan but even with vacuum I would never tap below the lateral. It just sounds like trouble to me, you want the sap to go downhill even when your vacuum pump loses power or breaks down
Great video. Because of your research, we started tapping below our laterals 3 years ago and it has made a world of difference. Better tap holes, and better yields because of it. Thank you for the work you are doing to further the maple industry.
In some cases, these research chambers are located in places where it is not easy to collect the sap. The value for us is in the research, and collecting the sap from some areas would take a lot of time and effort that would take away the time we need to do other research. So in those few cases, the sap is (unfortunately) dumped.
Strange long-term trend line. Statistically it really shows nothing with such a low number of data points. If you take 1999-2014 for example, suddenly the trend looks the exact opposite. This is why the number of data points makes it worthless.
@@abbyvandenberg5906 ok? The trend I was referring too was early in the presentation showing a trend towards maple season ending sooner as the years progressed. The data is misleading at best.
I think the graph you're referring to is actually of the date of sugar maple budbreak at PMRC from 1990-2014, which does show a trend, with interannual variation, toward an earlier occurrence since monitoring began.
@@abbyvandenberg5906 Yeah the graph @6:12, if you look at the points from 99'-14' (last 3/4 of the timeline available) the trendline would be completely reversed. Would be interesting to see this updated to 2022.
Hello Chris. This series of brief videos in this playlist is aimed at teaching maple producers high yield sap collection techniques, and thus assumes the viewer has some basic familiarity with maple equipment and techniques. It is impossible to introduce all of the equipment, techniques and terminology and to still keep the videos brief and focused on just a couple of points. If you wish to learn more about maple sap collection tubing systems, I would direct your attention to this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c6lpMgsfF-c.html Thank you for your interest.
It looks like the video could show some good information. But on a small device trying to understand what’s being shown is difficult. Could you add a voice over to explain what the temperature is in the Murphy cup and on the hydrometer and what they should be. Example you’re under syrup what were the Murphy cup show and what would the hydrometer show? thanks Kevin
Just heard about this on the Podcast "Sweet Talk" this morning on my morning commute to work!! If this had a check valve in them also, they would be the perfect spout! And I would buy definitely be buying them!
We are in the final season of testing and have several cooperators (in addition to UVM PMRC) putting some out in the field for the 2023 sap season. We have already done several yrs testing at UVM. This version is the actual (or close to) the version that might be marketed. If testing proves out well, they will be available starting in the fall of 2023.
Good info, thanks! This is my first year trying this, with 2 taps in 5 trees. Only issue is that I'm in Charlotte, which is typically a Zone 8A, so I'm not certain how much the sap will run here, but it's more of an experiment than anything else. I'm also tapping silver maples, so there is a bit less sugar in the sap. My confusion is when to tap here, as the buds usually come out in mid-January, so I'm trying it now, in December. Wish me luck!
Is there a best time to begin tapping? I know it is recommended that the temperature must drop below freezing and then warm up the next day but if that happens in October, is that too early?
Yes, that is likely far too early. You want to capture the most sap flow periods in the spring, understanding that once tapholes are drilled, they start to degrade due to microbial contamination (termed "taphole drying"). Where are you located?
