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What causes syrup to be light or dark at different parts of the season?
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Q1: I’m considering switching from a flat pan to a larger pan with continuous flow, and keep hearing about the gradient. What is a gradient and why is it important? Q2: After a warm spell that made the sap stop running, a hard freeze made it start again so I collected and boiled. The syrup had an off-flavor. Why?
Ask Proctor: Defoamer
We regularly get questions from maple producers about which defoamers are the best to use. Of course, the answer is…it depends.
Assessing Damage to Maple Sapwood Caused by Tapping
The area of stained sapwood associated with tapping or other wounds in maple trunks has long been interpreted to represent the area of wood that is compartmentalized, and thus unavailable for sap flow. We tested this interpretation by passing dye through maple stems that had been tapped and observing the area that was blocked. Our results indicate that the blocked portion of the trunk associated with a wound taphole is somewhat larger than the area which is visually compartmentalized (stained).
Assessing Strategies for Spout and Drop Sanitation in 5/16″ Tubing: Sap Yield, Cost, and Net Profit
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.
Assessing the Commercial Potential of a Site for Maple Sap Collection
These 9 variables are intended to help a potential commercial maple producer evaluate the relative merits of one or more selected woods for profitable maple production. A poor or medium rating does not mean that the woods should not be tapped but that production costs in money or labor will likely be higher or greater investments will be necessary to allow the sap collection to be established relative to other sites. Some problems may be avoided if the potential producer is a creative problem solver. Small-scale producers and hobby producers have less emphasis on financial return, so these variables are relevant but perhaps not weighted as heavily.
Assessing the Commercial Potential of a Site for Maple Sap Collection
These 9 variables are intended to help a potential commercial maple producer evaluate the relative merits of one or more selected woods for profitable maple production. A poor or medium rating does not mean that the woods should not be tapped but that production costs in money or labor will likely be higher or greater investments will be necessary to allow the sap collection to be established relative to other sites. Some problems may be avoided if the potential producer is a creative problem solver. Small-scale producers and hobby producers have less emphasis on financial return, so these variables are relevant but perhaps not weighted as heavily.
Assessment of the Flavor of Syrup Produced with High-Brix RO Systems
Concentrating sap with reverse osmosis (RO) substantially increases the efficiency and profitability of processing maple sap into syrup by reducing the amount of fuel and time required to complete concentration to syrup density in the evaporator, with gains proportional to the level of sap pre-concentration. Because most flavor development in maple syrup occurs through nonenzymatic browning reactions as sap is processed with heat in the evaporator, it has often been speculated that reduced evaporator processing time resulting from the use of RO might also result in perceptible impacts on syrup flavor. However, a series of controlled experiments conducted at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center using the same sap processed to different levels with RO determined that concentrating sap up to 21.5% prior to boiling in standard maple evaporators had no substantive effects on syrup composition or flavor.
Associations of calcium and aluminum with the growth and health of sugar maple trees in Vermont
We compared tree growth and crown condition with soil and foliar elemental composition in 14 sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) stands in VT, USA, to evaluate if deficiencies or imbalances in cation nutrition were associated with growth and health reductions in native stands. The Till Source Model (TSM) was used to select study sites potentially high or low in calcium (Ca) by predicting the relative Ca concentration of soil parent material derived from glacial till. The TSM successfully identified high or low levels of soil Ca (P = 0.031) and foliar Ca (P = 0.011) among stands.
Avoiding equipment trouble
Common problems with sugaring equipment and how to avoid them.