Im thinking about ordering enough of these to plant an acre this fall at 25’ x 25’ spacing. Anyone have them or know much about them? Guy I found online is selling seedings from the original test trees that are 20" tall for $10 each. Not sure if that is a decent price or not… I might get some seed to try also. Supposedly his trees produce sap that is 4-8% consistently. Here is a little more information I found online:
"Some 50 years ago, about a dozen forestry researchers identified a batch of “super sweet” maple trees, plants with more sugar in their sap, at various locations in New England, New York and Ohio. In the 1960s they planted seeds from them at Proctor Maple Research Center, on private land in Jericho, and at Williams College, Ohio State University and a Cornell University station in Lake Placid. They then tracked these “mother” trees and their progeny.
Baribault and fellow UVM botanists Timothy Perkins and William Currier picked up this work and continued tracking the maples’ sugar levels. Through additional funding from North American Maple Research Council and, later, the USDA National Research Initiative, Baribault pressed forward with the work, and from leaf and bud samples he is now looking for DNA “fingerprints” that might distinguish extra-sweet trees from the rest. These identifying genetic markers will aid breeding programs and shed light on the signaling mechanisms that regulate a maple’s sugar-production process.
The rationale of the work is obvious: The sweeter the sap, the less fuel needed to make syrup. Better still, the sweeter trees actually produce more sap than their counterparts, so they represent a potential economic boon to producers. The sweetness advantage of the super-sweet trees is significant. Regular sap averages about two percent sugar. The progeny of the super-sweet trees average six-to-seven percent with some higher than 10 percent sweetness, Baribault says.
From: The University of Vermont, “Sweet Understanding”, by Cheryl Dorschner, University"
St. Lawrence Nurseries sells one they call a “Sweet-Sap Silver Maple” that they propagate from tissue culture. They say it tests at 3 to 5% sugar content. Here’s a link: Sweet-Sap Silver Maple – St. Lawrence Nurseries
I do not understand why they collected seeds from these original mother trees that tested so high in sugar content. Anyone who grows seeds knows they usually result in a lot of variation on the offspring.
Commercial sugar maples selected for their fall color for the landscape trade (‘Fall Fiesta’-MN, ‘Flax Mill Majesty’-NY ect) are all propagated by chip budding onto a seedling sugar maple rootstock.
I would think it would have been better for the researchers to chip bud from the mother tree onto a rootstock. Then the offspring would be genetically identical. Unless the seedlings they finally did select out were as good in sugar content as the mother trees.
@Spartan
Yes budding sounds good…?
I wonder if the root could play a roll in the sugar content ?
If so ?
May need to be on its own root?
I really have no idea, just sayin…
also the benefit of the silver maples is faster growth and adaptability to wetter soils. if i had the land, id invest in some as well. I’ve heard yellow birch makes a great syrup and is a fast grower on wet soils as well. st. lawrence nursery sells a sliver maple with a lot higher sugar content than regular silver maples and you could be tapping them in as little as 20 yrs.
id guess the roots are necessary to get high sugar sap. supposedly the super sweet trait is heritable and these seedlings are from an isolated stand of super sweet trees.
This was mentioned in an article in Gleanings in Bee Culture about 35 years ago. The trees they collected were grafted into a seed producing orchard. The original article I read stated that the trees sampled averaged twice as much sugar concentration as ordinary maple trees and gave the average as 4% up to 8%.
Typical sugar maples run 2 to 3%.
Silver maple is not as good for sap as it tends to produce a milky color when concentrated. Rock maple aka sugar maple produces clear to slightly brownish syrup.
I’m not sure if anyone is interested, but sugar maples are split into two species with one in the NorthEast and the southern sugar maple in the southeast. The northern species is native all the way down to NorthWest Alabama. I saw several trees on Sweetwater branch off of the Natchez Trace less than 30 miles from here last year. Southern species sugar maples are found down the Tennessee river drainage and are especially prominent south of Selma Alabama.
I assume grafts of these super-sweet maples are not available to us. I would be interested in planting a few, but at my age, I probably wouldn’t be tapping them for long. If they ever come up for sale, please be sure to let the rest of us know.
About 30 years ago I used to come into Wisconsin with a crew from Minnesota. Each spring we would go on private land (by permission) and dig up 5000 sugar maple seedlings to plant at a nursery I worked at. We also collected ironwood and basswood this way too. Paid the landowners 15-25 cents a tree and we did all the work. They were always happy for the check I gave them. Some of those old sugars had just a carpet of young seedlings under each tree. So much organic matter on the ground we could actually just pull most of them out of the ground in April with just a few needing the spade for assistance.
I recall once going on land somewhat near Ellsworth, WI. They had a commercial maple syrup operation in the family for years. The owner let us harvest sugar maple seedlings. He then showed me around as some sugars were marked. He claimed those had super high sugar content. Way higher than most of the native sugars in the grove.
I suppose these super sweet sugars are perhaps not so rare but just not found if occuring in populations not tested for sugar content.
The most interesting part of my endeavor there was the sales room. Open all day and self-serve! I went back and nobody around. The room must of had thousands of dollars of maple syrup in all size containers. They had a cash box on the table and the sign said to put the money in the box. The box was not locked as the sign also said if need change then take out of box.
I have to chuckle as I recalled how honest the locals must have been. In today’s world I would think many would be tempted to take all the money and the syrup!
If I remember correctly this operation did about 500 gallons of syrup each year. Far bigger than the operation I helped at years ago near there that did 100-250 gallons each spring (run by a good friend).
Hopefully next week if the trout streams clear up I will make my annual fall trip there for trout fishing and maple syrup. We always joke about where so much of the maple syrup made in Wisconsin goes (Hint: bottled in Vermont).
Guy Im planning to order from has a lot of regular sugar maples also, said he bottled 3000 gallons last year, averages about 1/2 gallon of syrup / tree.
Silver maples are not good for making maple syrup. The Silver Maples are designed for housing plats. They are very fast growing and if there is not enough water their roots grow above the ground. They are constantly seeking water so if you have one planted close to your sewer lines their hair roots will clog your sewer lines.
Silver maples can be used for syrup, as can most maples, a few birch, and even black walnut.
But, the amount of cooking necessary to get a gallon of syrup is way higher…the sugar content is much lower.
And, silver maples are fast growing, but not to be recommended in a subdivision, or near a drive, walk, or house foundation. (Lexington/Fayette, in Kentucky has had them outlawed for over 25 years…no new plantings without risk of a citation.)
I do not know of anyone actually being cited, but they probably have.
If you are buying seedling grown plants from sweet sap parents, I’d do a little investigation into what makes a cultivar.
As far as I know, high sugar content is not a trait that is inherited with any degree of predictability, or at all. You want trees on their own roots, cutting or TC grown, not grafted. Frankly, I don’t know if grafted or not makes a difference, just that the prevailing knowledge is to go for own root trees. What is the extent of research into grafted trees and enhanced sugar? Also don’t know.
If anyone is making sugar and averaging 1/2 gal a tap, that would be the target average for an average tree. Not a high sugar tree, just average sugar maple.
I’d likely pass on high priced seedlings and look into reverse osmosis.
For what it’s worth, the guy who is the head of maple research at the University of VT says high sugar trees are found in the pocketbook. And frankly, after looking into such things myself, I came away with the conclusion that unless you have extremely limited land available and have a large demand for syrup, just not worth even trying.
If you really do want to try, contact forrest keeling nursery in missouri. They have high sugar maples (sugar maples) grown on own roots. st lawrence nursery has the sweet sap silver maple. Both are grown on their roots. Unless someone can show you the tests to demonstrate high sugar % on a seedling grown tree from a sweet sap parent…I wouldn’t believe them.
I make syrup from Silver maples every year. I keep it separate from the Sugar maple sap as it has a slightly different taste. One that I would describe as more buttery-caramelly. I can verify that the sap from the Silver maples I tap is very close to the same sugar content as the sap from the Sugar maples, as they’ve both been close to 37-40 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup.
I would like to taste syrup from birch and walnut, but I don’t have the trees to make it.
Thanks for the clarification. The plat that I lived in for 30 years all had silver maple trees and a few people tried doing the maple syrup things with theirs. Not a good outcome for them.