The Work of Maple Associations
A panel discussion at the NAMSC annual meeting offered a number of suggestions for ways state and provincial associations can help their members.
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Things You Can Do to Ensure the Quality of Your Maple Syrup
After producing maple syrup for over 40 years and teaching seminars on maple syrup production for close to 20, I have made or personally witnessed most of the common mistakes that lead to off flavors and poor syrup quality. In this article I will go over some, but certainly not all, of the factors that lead to poor syrup quality. The good news is that most of the factors can be controlled by producers with best practices, in turn meaning you control the quality of your syrup. The Map of Maple Off Flavors (linked above) identifies 5 primary areas where off flavors occur: Mother Nature, defoamer, processing, chemicals and others. I want to address each area in order of how they would occur from start of season to finish.
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.
Thoughts on the Season: Bruce Bascom
Overall, Bruce says he is positive and optimistic about both production and demand, estimating that both could double in the U.S. in the next decade or so. “Some people think it’s a bubble,” he says, “but I think the market is still very strong.”
Timing of defoliation and its effect on bud development, starch reserves, and sap sugar concentration in sugar maple
Sapling sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) trees were defoliated artificially at 10-day intervals beginning May 27 and ending August 5, 1981. Refoliation, terminal bud and shoot development, and xylem starch and sap sugar concentration were observed in defoliated and control trees. All defoliated trees refoliated, but decreasingly with later defoliation. Defoliation caused an acceleration in the rate of primordia initiation in terminal shoot apices. After early season defoliations, the developing buds in the axils of the removed leaves abscissed, but axillary and terminal buds on the refoliated terminal shoots survived through winter. In late season defoliation, most buds of refoliated shoots did not survive and the next year’s growth depended on axillary buds formed prior to defoliation. Thus, when progressing from early to late defoliations, the next year’s shoot growth depended decreasingly on the last-formed and increasingly on the first-formed portions of the previous year’s shoot. Early October starch concentration in xylem decreased with later defoliation and was nearly absent in shoots and roots of trees defoliated in late July. There was not, however, a corresponding decrease in sap sugar concentration. Mortality occurred only in late defoliated trees and was associated with starch depletion.
Timing of Spout and Dropline Deployment Has No Effect on Sap Yield
This aim of this project was to determine whether early spout and dropline deployment before tapping could be used while maintaining good sanitation levels and high sap yields.
Timing of tapping
In recent years, research at Cornell University’s Uihlein Maple Research Forest has looked at ways to maximize maple sap production through tapping practices such as spout selection, re-tapping and timing of tapping.
Tips for Welcoming Sugarhouse Visitors on Maple Weekend (or any time)
When getting ready for maple weekend, or for any time that you’re welcoming customersto your sugarhouse, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Total Syrup Yields from Red Maple Trees
Presentation by Dr. Abby van den Berg, UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, at the NY Mid-Winter Classic Conference.
Total Yields From Red Maples
Many producers include red maples as crop trees without a second thought. And still many others will walk past red maples with a roll of tubing. Why the difference? Much of it arises from some lingering perceptions about red maples – that they produce lower yields or stop running earlier than sugar maples, or produce syrup with inferior flavor or that exhibits buddy flavor earlier than sugar maple.