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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.
The University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center and the Cornell Maple Program Arnot Forest conducted a multi-year study examining several common sanitation strategies and assessing the effects on sap yield, attendant costs, and resulting net profits. The following graphs briefly summarize the results of this work.
In a normal sap flow event, trees exude sap during the above freezing period and replenish that lost water by ÒsuckingÓ it up from the roots during the below freezing period. If on a tubing system, during this negative pressure period they tend to draw sap back into the tree from the dropline. Sap, once it enters the droplines, is quickly contaminated with microbes. When they are drawn back into the tree, tap hole closure is initiated. The problem is compounded in 3/16- inch tubing because, unlike 5/16-inch tubing, the smaller diameter collection tube remains full of sap. A Cornell study found that up to 12 feet of sap in a 3/16-inch tube can be drawn back into the tree during this recharge time. CV spouts are one proven method of limiting this drawback with 5/16 inch tubing. The question was: will they also be effective with 3/16-inch tubing that is full of sap?
Since check valve adaptors and spouts reduce sap backflow, this research studied whether or not dropline replacement is as important to improving sap yield when using these taps.