Proctor Maple Research Center Update
Dr. Tim Perkins, Director of UVM’s Proctor Maple Research Center, shares a review of the past year at PMRC and a collection of recent findings on topics related to sap and syrup production.
Year: 2020
Showing 11 – 20 of 77 resources
Keys to High Yield
Actual yields in many maple operations are often lower than those achievable under optimum conditions. Dr. Abby van den Berg, Research Associate Professor with UVM’s Department of Plant Biology and Proctor Maple Research Center, presents practices to narrow this gap, from tree to sugarhouse.
Sugarbush Water Quality & AMPs
Understanding how roads and water interact in the sugarbush is important for many reasons. Dave Wilcox, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation Watershed Forester, provides a clear understanding of how acceptable management practices (AMPs) used in timber harvesting can help improve water quality, reduce erosion, and keep access to the sugarhouse open.
Maple Tele-Medicine: What is Making my Syrup Taste Sick?
Most people recognize good tasting syrup and many can pick out when syrup tastes off, but occasionally there is a flavor that is not easily identified. Mark Isselhardt, UVM Extension, and Henry Mackres, retired Vermont Chief of Consumer Protection, discuss syrup flavors (and off-flavors) and sample syrup sent in advance of the session for diagnoses.
Thinning Your Sugarbush for Sap & Tree Health
Thinning is a specific woodlot management practice to concentrate growth on the most desirable trees. Peter Smallidge, Senior Extension Associate with Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, reviews the benefits of thinning, how to know if you should thin your sugarbush, potential problems from thinning, and reviews research about how thinning in sugarbushes affects health, tapping options, and production.
Renting Taps to Enhance Viability
Can access to more taps improve your business? Do you own forest land that you’d like to lease to sugar makers? Mark Cannella, UVM Extension, provides information on leasing taps and different approaches to setting rental rates. He also shares the new UVM Sugarbush Lease Guide and Sugarhouse Lease Guide with participants.
Maximizing Maple Sap Yields
How to collect the most sap possible using efficient techniques.
Guidance for Maple Open House Events During COVID-19
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many maple producers were forced to cancel open house events during the 2020 sugaring season for the safety of the producers and their customers. This caused a major loss in sales for many maple producers throughout the maple producing region. While COVID-19 is likely to still be a concern for the 2021 sugaring season, we now have a better understanding of the virus and protective measures to keep everyone safe while staying open for business. Those measures and best practices are detailed in this guidance.
Drought Stress and Water Availability for Maple Sap Production: A Correction
Sap flow and stem pressure in sugar maples during winter dormancy depend on the expansion and contraction of gas bubbles. These gas bubbles are primarily located in the libriform fibers of wood tissues, not in the xylem vessels. Though there are gas bubbles (embolisms) in the xylem vessels, these bubbles are not the dominant drivers of stem pressurization.
Pandemic Prompts New Ways to Market Maple
Maple farmers experienced a difficult transition when the COVID-19 outbreak in North America resulted in the shutting down of sugarhouses to the public, particularly during some of the most crucial weekends for in-person maple sales. Sugarmakers had to quickly pivot in order to make up for lost sales in the sugarhouse as well as from wholesale restaurant and school accounts. This shift brought about some creative thinking and innovative solutions to reach customers and promote maple products. Some successful marketing, sales and agritourism strategies have not only helped producers recover lost sales, but have permanently enhanced their future sales approach and marketing plans.