If you’ve ever ‘tapped’ some maple trees…and sipped the cool water…you’ll know some is sweeter than others. Modern technology supposedly makes it easier. But, the old folks didn’t need a ‘candy thermometer’ to make candy, and didn’t need a refractometer to tell some maples are sweeter than others.
3 Likes
So I got about 500 SS seeds from the Maple Forest
Half have been in my fridge since I got them, starting to sprout now. I froze half of them. They are from 4 different trees, which are supposed to be the sweetest available.
Might have some extras to share this fall if anyone is interested.
Hopefully you have some grandchildren?
1 Like
“They” say not to tap a tree until it is 10” diameter. I don’t know if there is science behind that, but that’s what I follow. My 40- 50 year old trees support 1 or two taps. On my property, a tree is 20 to 30 years old before it gets to 10” diameter. These are natural seedlings in mature woods. I average 35:1 ratio sap:syrup. I guess they utilize younger trees now by using vacuums and pruning to a bush style tree, but that involves a lot of time and equipment. I encourage anyone to plant any tree…but the payoff is at least a decade away for sugar maple. I’ll trade some of my syrup for scions if you don’t want to wait so long.
3 Likes
yeah it’s a long term thing, probably be 15 to 20 years before i can try tapping them. if i live that long… i needed trees anyway.
i don’t think grafting ss wood onto regular roots works for maples cuz the sap comes from the roots…
I should have clarified…fruit tree scions, not maple. I weed wack hundreds of maple seedlings a year…they’re a bit of a nuisance on my property.
1 Like
sweet sap silver maples are sold by St. Lawrence nursery out of N.Y. they claim these trees produce 3 to 5% sugar sap, compared to reg. sugars that are 2-2.5% they claim they can be tapped in 8-10 yrs and are tolerant of heavy clay, wet soils. if i had the property , id invest in at least 20 trees. curious how the syrup tastes compared to the sugars? sweeter isn’t always better. something to ponder.
1 Like
I wonder if these are produced via seed or asexual propagation. Those are kinda pricy if i remember correctly?
asexual . thats why they’re so expensive. seeds are too variable. $22 for a 4 to 6ft. tree. might be worth it if the syrup is good quality and you can tap in 10yrs. big money in Maine for maple syrup products.
1 Like
Planted a sugar maple in open field, put a fence around, in 1977. Today it I about 12" in diameter.
2 Likes
Well thats discouraging… Im hoping I can get faster growth by babying them with a bit of fertilizer, etc. Well see I guess.
yeah. sugar maples are slow growing here too. i see a real hardwood shortage for firewood up here very soon as they clearcut hardwood ridges then replant mono stands of softwood for lumber. also real bad for the animals as nothing can survive off of tens of thousands of acres of spruce. what happens when big companies buy huge tracts of forested land and control the politicians. the other types of hardwood species are equally slow to regrow. only yellow/ white birch comes back fairly fast but isn’t nearly as good to burn as sugar maples and beech which are both getting very rare around here. there are more in parks and front yards than in the woods now. the maple sugar producers here are family owned for many generations and have actively nurtured their stands for near a century now. many only sell maple products and make a very good living just off that.
3 Likes
Things have been a little stagnant in the sweet tree program but some newer grafting techniques are being tryed with good success recently at Proctor Maple Research Center. Other techniques are being developed upon genetic sap testing of trees I was working with a UVM student and Dr Abby Van Den Berg with some of the SSC content testing in the NY and VT clonal orchards.
Reading through some of this thread there is some known and unknown and still more to learn especially upon root grafting and seeds but a good chunk is proved mostly correct. I have dabbled around assisting in some things related to sweet trees and read about everything I could get my hands upon since the sweet tree project was started and spearheaded by William J Gabriel who was a geneticist with the USFS.
Yes there are cuttings being made off the silver maple tree that was found by Canadian forester larrson many years and and there is 12” dia silver in Grand Isle plot.
Some things I have put upon my YouTube channel birchmapleresearch which you could look at. During my travels I hunt for super sweet maples and have found in the wild 40+ that consistently test above 4% SSC and 13 Above 5% and 1 above 6% but lost it due to salt and snow plowed around base but I did find another above 6% so life is all good.
Many things to consider when on the hunt for a sweet tree and I just recently posted what I am looking for when sizing up a potential candidate for testing to see if it’s a super sweet maple tree
Kevin Sargent
5 Likes
Thanks for posting and reviving this thread Kevin! I just bought 50 sugar maple seedlings to plant on the front hill of our work office amongst the other trees we’ve recently planted. Have you tried to propagate any cuttings from the 6% or other high % trees you have found? My co-worker uses the red maple trees in the woods for sap (and it takes him A LOT of sap to make a gallon) but eventually having sugar maples, even if they are not high % will be better.
Presently I have not tryed to propagate any cuttings off from any trees that I have found with high sugar%. It has been a Few years that being so busy I have not been in talks with Dr Abby at PMRC or up to Uihlien Maple Research in Lake Placid since Mike Farrell left about 4 yrs ago but do know they are working with a guy at the Uihlein potato research farm just up the road taking bud cuttings off some of the trees in lake placid and trying to get them to root by themselves.
Part of the problem they figured out years ago with sweet tree cutting put on to unknown rootstock doesn’t work so well from what I read. Although Grand Isle plot of sweet trees are older then Lake Placid plot there are only around 10-12 that tested above 3% SSC and only just 1 tree testing above 4% during my time there that test consistently close to 6%.
The silver maple was testing like 3.8%.
I have dug up seedlings from seeds drop from parent sugar maples within the plot ( 1968? When plot established upon this area no other maple trees with 300’ of area) parents were around 2.5 to 2.7% and just last spring I tested 2 of 4 that are still alive and around 3-4” Dia and I was getting 3.5 and 3.9%ssc.
Of seedlings I raised off seeds of wild sweet mother tree I have found I have gave a bunch to different people and trying the air root pruning method (I did YouTube video of racks) highest ice/water jam upon friends 70yrs at home along river got wiped out. And have yet to contact people I gave seeds to try out to see if they have trees still going from germinated sprouting seeds I sent them.
Certainly need to get back in the loop upon this sweet tree program and talk to some that are doing more work then myself and try to keep updated
2 Likes
That would be great, please keep us updated! I could see sugar maple improvements being a huge boon for anyone who has a crop, both the efficiency in processing as well as space needed for trees, as long as the quality of sap produced by high % trees is as good as the low % trees.