Author: Wilmot, Timothy

Showing 51 – 60 of 63 resources

The Timing of Tapping for Maple Syrup Collection

There are a variety of reasons why sugarmakers might want to tap earlier than the traditional date: thousands of taps that take several weeks to install, lower snow cover and easier walking before mid to late winter, climate change generally moving the season forward and providing more sap flow weather in January and February. For most sugarmakers, the bottom line is simply this: what tapping time frame results in the highest sap yield? The experiments described below, which were performed between 2000 and 2007, were designed to answer this question.

Publication:
Maple Syrup Digest
Date:
June 1, 2008

Results from the 2008 New England tapping survey

Results of an annual survey conducted of New England sugarmakers, capturing information on production practices and results, such as types of equipment used, sap sugar content, sanitation practices, and other data.

Date:
June 1, 2008

Vacuum Sap Collection: How High or Low Should You Go?

Questions of how vacuum affects maple sap, syrup and trees have existed for many years, and these issues are perhaps more important today than ever before due to the increasing use of collection systems that can achieve very high levels of vacuum. This article will describe recent research performed at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center that was designed to answer questions about high vacuum.

Publication:
Maple Syrup Digest
Date:
October 1, 2007

Results from the 2007 New England tapping survey

Results of an annual survey conducted of New England sugarmakers, capturing information on production practices and results, such as types of equipment used, sap sugar content, sanitation practices, and other data.

Date:
June 1, 2007

Comparison of the “Small” Spout with the Traditional 7/16″ Spout

The “small” spout, 19/64″ or 5/16″ in diameter, has been widely available to maple producers since the mid to late 1990’s as a “healthy” alternative to the traditional 7/16″ spout. While now in general use by producers in some regions, particularly those collecting sap by vacuum, the utility of these smaller spouts is still questioned by many sugarmakers, particularly those collecting sap by gravity. This article will review several studies conducted at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center comparing 7/16″ spouts with small spouts (for the purposes of this article, 5/16″, and 19/64″ will be considered equally as “small” spouts).

Publication:
Maple Syrup Digest
Date:
June 1, 2007

Should Lateral Lines Be Vented?

A great deal has changed since the 1960s and 1970s in terms of maple production and recommended practices, especially given the introduction of the new polyethylene tubing formulations and new types of spouts. Consequently, we are occasionally asked whether lateral lines in gravity tubing installations should be vented. As a result of these questions, we compared sap yield from standard non vented (closed) 5/16″ lateral lines alongside a vented 5/16″ installation under gravity conditions.

Publication:
Maple Syrup Digest
Date:
October 1, 2006

Results from the 2006 New England tapping survey

Results of an annual survey conducted of New England sugarmakers, capturing information on production practices and results, such as types of equipment used, sap sugar content, sanitation practices, and other data.

Date:
June 1, 2006

Temperatures in the Sugarbush

One major limitation to the sap-run forecasting ability of many producers is that measurement of air temperature in one location does not capture the wide variation in air temperature throughout the sugarbush; nor does it accurately reflect the temperature of the diverse parts of trees, or of the soil. A study of the range of temperatures in the forest during sugaring time is helpful in understanding some of the influences of weather on sap flow. This article briefly summarizes a large set of data collected over the past years which includes many sugarbush temperatures, and will give a few examples of the sometimes unexpected variation in temperatures which occur during the spring.

Publication:
Maple Syrup Digest
Date:
June 1, 2006

Fertilizing a Sugarbush

This brochure is intended to help landowners and maple producers evaluate the nutrition of maple stands, and determine whether fertilization might be appropriate. There is an emphasis on learning some of the plants in your woods, as these are often valuable indicators of site quality, and are in many cases easier to interpret than chemical analyses of soil or leaves.

Date:
January 1, 2005