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Because of the vertical orientation of the dominant anatomical feature of wood (vessels and fibers), sap within the stem of maple trees moves primarily in a vertical direction, either upward during as the tree is freezing/uptake phase or downward (mostly) during the thawing/exudation phase. When a tree is tapped, a zone of impermeable wood forms around the wood.
The typical trend over a sugaring season is for syrup to start out light in color and get progressively darker, eventually ending up with very dark (and strong or off-tasting) syrup at the end. While there can be some temporary excursions up and down in syrup light transmittance, the natural progression is from light syrup early on to dark syrup near the finish. However, occasionally a syrup producer finds that right as the season is concluding the syrup color goes up dramatically and wonder why this happens.
The University of Vermont (UVM) Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC) in Underhill, Vermont, has along history of research on sap production. Maple syrup has been made at PMRC since shortly after its founding in 1946, in part for research and in part for demonstration. Syrup production has always been an important component of the work of PMRC as it keeps the faculty and staff aware of the issues involved in sap collection and syrup production, it provides more of a “buy in” from producers when they understand that we face the same hurdles as they do each season, and the revenue gained from the sale of maple syrup helps to fund the operation.
Avoiding tapping near previous tapholes is a common practice in maple production. This is because previous wounds create a zone of stained wood that extends slightly wider and deeper than the taphole, but extends upwards and downwards, often reaching 6-12 inches in length in each direction, affecting a volume of wood approximately 50 times (range of 15-150X) larger than the volume of the taphole (vanden Berg et al. 2023).
For several years researchers at the UVM Proctor Maple Research Center studied the feasibility of collecting sap from saplings as an alternative production method for maple syrup.
Because of the lack of knowledge on this topic and the frequent questions we received about the proper practice, we implemented a study in the summer of 2022 to examine the single and interactive effect of spout deployment date and open verses closed drops on sap yield.
The outermost rings of wood in maple trees have the highest sap flow rates and have sweeter sap than the wood found deeper in the tree. We designed a spout that incorporates both a shortened barrel and a series of barbs along the shaft to anchor the spout tightly within the wood and bark tissues.
Ongoing research at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center over the past thirteen years has examined a variety of approaches to increases yield from 5/16” maple tubing systems on vacuum.
We occasionally hear the question: “Even if the season is late or short, shouldn’t there be the same amount of sap produced during the time that does run than there
would have been if it were longer season or happened at ‘the usual’ time?”
Maple sap tubing collection systems have undergone continuous evolution since being introduced. Over the past several decades, spouts in particular have changed considerably, with a marked shift towards smaller (1/4”, 19/64”, or 5/16”) spouts, developed and introduced by CDL.