Maple Syrup Production for the Beginner
A basic guide to tapping trees, collecting sap, and boiling for beginners.
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A basic guide to tapping trees, collecting sap, and boiling for beginners.
Pear thrips surfaced as a new pest of sugar maple, Acer saccharum Marsh., in 1979. Damage from this insect occurs intermittently, and threatens the long-term health of maple trees throughout the northeastern United States and parts of Canada. A method for sampling forest soil to determine pear thrips populations is described that is suitable for sugarmakers. This method requires a minimum of equipment and time, and provides sugarmakers with a reliable estimate of the number of thrips in their sugar_bushes. By sampling and assessing damage annually, sugarmakers will gain an understanding of the relationship between thrips population levels and damage in their stands. Based on this information, potential damage in the spring can be estimated. Sample results are obtained before tapping so sugarmakers can adjust their management practices, such as the number of taps per tree, to minimize stress on trees when damage is likely.
The timing and duration of budbreak of forest trees may be affected by biotic and abiotic factors. This manual provides a visual method for monitoring bud development of mature trees of sugar maple, Acer saccharum Marsh., from the ground. A spotting scope with a 15-45x zoom lens was used for bud rating. The user is supplied with close-up photographs and a brief description of each bud stage. Sample data sheets are also provided. This protocol is currently used in the Vermont Forest Health Monitoring Program.
Sugar maple fact sheet.
Silvics of North America describes the silvical characteristics of about 200 conifers and hardwood trees in the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Individual articles were researched and written by knowledgeable Forest Service, university, and cooperating scientists. They were reviewed by their counterparts in research and academia. The project took 10 years to complete. The revised manual retains all of the essential material from the original publication, plus new information accumulated over the past quarter of a century. It promises to serve as a useful reference and teaching tool for researchers, educators, and practicing foresters both within the United States and abroad.
An older step-by-step guide to building a preheater.
Sapstreak is a fatal disease of sugar maple that usually enters the tree through basal trunk scars or root wounds. The disease most often affects large, wounded trees left after logging. The fungus causing sapstreak readily infects stumps or cut logs during the summer months. So, wounding sugar maples during this time will increase the potential for disease spread. In the Lake States, sapstreak has only been found in a few areas of Michigan and at one location in Wisconsin. Although few trees have been killed by sapstreak, it has the potential to become a serious disease in sugar maple stands.
A guide to designing and constructing an efficient sugarhouse.
A practical guide for the management of a sugarbush. Guidelines are established for the manipulation of stand density and stocking to promote the development of healthy vigorous trees with deep, wide crowns, the necessary attributes for highest possible yield of sugar-rich sap.
Sugarbush managers have long needed a guide for determining the stocking of their sugar maple stands. The question is: for desirable sugar maple sap production, how many trees per acre are needed? To provide information about stocking, the USDA Forest Service’s sugar maple sap production project at Burlington, Vermont, has made a regionwide study of the relationships between crown diameter and d.b.h. (diameter breast high) of open-grown sugar maple trees (Acer saccharum Marsh.). We found a strong relationship between crown diameter and d.b.h., and converted these data into stocking guides for various stand-size classes. The stocking guide are based on the assumption that trees with full crowns produce the best sap yields.