Maximizing Maple Sap Yields
How to collect the most sap possible using efficient techniques.
Author: Isselhardt, Mark
Showing 21 – 30 of 69 resources
Taphole Staining and Sap Yields
The compartmentalization (walling off) process in maple trees and how it affects how to tap for maple syrup production.
Vermont Maple Minutes
Brief podcasts on a range of maple topics.
Sugarbush Lease 2020: An Annotated Guide
This educational resource is designed for maple syrup producers, maple sap producers and forest land owners to consider, discuss and formalize lease agreements. This resource is not intended to replace the guidance of a legal professional. The situation for each person and party is different and professional legal assistance is recommended to ensure your business agreements are accurate, appropriate and complete.
Composition and Properties of Maple Sap, Concentrate, and Permeate
Reverse osmosis is used widely in the maple syrup industry to concentrate maple sap and increase the overall efficiency and profitability of syrup pro-duction. Sets of samples from maple producers utilizing a range of sap con-centration levels were collected and analyzed to provide a portrait of the phy-sicochemical properties and chemical composition of maple sap, concentrate, and permeate across a single production season. The results reinforce that re-verse osmosis functions essentially as a concentration process, without signifi-cantly altering the fundamental proportions of sap constituents.
Quality Control in the Sugarhouse: Knowing where things can go wrong, and making sure that they don’t.
The most helpful advice for producers concerned about damaging otherwise good syrup is the most basic; make sure to grade each batch carefully and don’t assume that just because everything went smoothly in the sugarhouse that the syrup doesn’t need to be checked. The following is a list of problems that can occur with the four primary qualities of syrup, and how to avoid them.
Does Color Matter? Spouts come in variety of hues. Does it affect yield?
In general, it is presumed that any effect of Òspout colorÓ on sap yield arises due to thermal warming of darker-colored spouts during sunny periods. Darker-colored spouts warm faster and the spout temperature can rise considerably above air temperature when hit by the sun compared to lighter-colored spouts. To assess the effect of Òspout colorÓ on sap yield, we conducted a multi-year study at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill, Vermont. Twelve treatment plots were randomly assigned a different spout type, with one mainline and releaser for each plot.
Ask Proctor
Could the sugar maples have broken bud during unusually warm January temperatures?
Maple Industry Panel
Where is the maple industry headed? Where are bulk prices headed? Is the global market demand for syrup keeping pace with the expansion in production? This panel discussion includes Bruce Bascom (Bascom Maple Farms), John Kingson (Butternut Mountain Farm), David Hall (Quebec Federation of Maple Producers) and Mark Cannella (UVM Extension Farm Business Specialist). The session is moderated by Mark Isselhardt (UVM Extension Maple Specialist)
Tree Size and Maple Production
There are several important factors that affect the yield of sap from trees during the production season. One relationship that is sometimes overlooked is the one between tree size and yield. In order to develop models of tree size and yield to answer some of these questions, we measured the sap volume and sugar content from approximately fifty individuals along a wide range of sizes during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.