Maple Tapping Basics - featuring Ray Bonenberg

[Music] hi there i'm ray bonnenberg i'm with the ontario maple syrup producers association i'm a producer near pembroke ontario today we're going to talk about tapping maple trees it sounds basic but it is the most important thing a maple producer needs to do correctly when you get to a tree the most important thing is to take your time and to take a look at the tree in its entirety look for old holes here's a more recent one here's a quite older one down here and here's an older one up here key is to look for areas that you know have not been tapped before we call it tapping into what's called white meat or very clear sawdust picture that this is a diamond shape of stained wood from the old hole the sap will not run in that area so a general rule is two inches over and eight inches up and you then tap your new hole in that area to ensure you get that white clean sawdust so we'll talk about tools we highly encourage the use of health spouts 5 16 inches smaller hole for the tree today we're going to be looking at pipeline but the same principles apply if you use buckets the drill is a special drill bit that is designed to drill into frozen wood it's easy to think that you can get a 5 16 drill out of the hardware store to do the trick yes you can but this will cut the hole cleaner which allows the sap to flow more freely and takes the sawdest out of the hole we use a smaller rubber mallet to put it in it's called tapping not hammering so the tap the tapping process is use a rubber mallet to tap it in which we'll show you later so the weather is important in tapping you want to make sure you're not tapping in extremely cold weather there is a potential of cracking the bark by drilling holes at minus 20 or minus 15. very large producers have to tap early because of the volume but if you're a medium or small size producer wait for the proper weather minus five uh no colder than minus ten to tap your holes so when you're tapping you come up to a tree and you take a look at the tree again to where the old holes and where are the new holes you can grab the tubing here and you just stretch it that's designed to go in different areas of the tree you see an old hole you see another old hole and you think all right this one looks good it's two inches away from the older holes and so we know that there's no stained non-conductive wood in that area so with your drill in your hand you go to the area that you want to tap and you've taken a good look at your tree you get your drill in two hands a very slight angle not because the sap will run out but then rain water after you pull it will drain out to facilitate healing of the hole and then it's one solid moment movement so you drill in and out no reaming no moving around like this just in and out and the sawdust will come out as well so first tapping of hole no matter it's cold it's minus six here today it will run just because the tree is the pressure inside the tree will push the sap out that is normal so as you approach the tree the choice of mallet or hammer is up to you i like to use a rubber one it just enables me to not over tap or tighten it if you're using buckets with a little blue 5 16 spiles you might want to use a little small hammer like this key is don't use a great big claw hammer so you've got your hole drilled and you've determined where you want to put it you put your spile or spout in there and take your hammer and once you hear a thud or a click you stop do not hammer it one more for good luck you run the risk of cracking the bark or even breaking your spile so many people ask about what size of maple tree do i tap and how many taps do i put on you see all pictures of six seven buckets on a big maple tree it's really a bad thing to do what you want to do is determine the size and we do have guidelines on how many taps per tree and the health of the tree this three in particular i put two taps on i very seldom put two on a tree i usually just put one and the sap is coming from an area like a semi circle from the tubing and from the other semicircle if you think that you're going to get 200 percent out of two taps you're not you're going to get about 135 so so don't delude yourself to think that if i put three i'm gonna get three times the sap or two two times the sap no start at 10 to 12 inches one tap to 18 inches anything over that and the health of your tree take a look at your crown the conditions the year before there might have been drought it might have been extreme weather the tree might have lost significant branching due to wind or ice then either don't tap that tree or just put one tap on it as you approach the tree also take a look at the bark and we know that the tighter bark we call it in forestry terms usually is a sign of a healthy tree there are no significant holes there's not huge woodpecker damage and you know then in conjunction with looking at the crown you look at the bark it tells you the general health of the tree so in late april or early may whenever your sugaring season is done you pull these spiles and you can get a puller that fits underneath the tap like this and then pulls out the tap oh in summary proper tapping can increase yields and reduce impact on trees take your time plan the proper drill location when in doubt under tap don't over tap drill depth to 1.5 inches use proper drill bits tap all around the tree not just the south side pick the proper temperature to tap you

Channel: Ontario Maple Syrup Producers' Association

Views: 13,932

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Id: S73SSgsuupI

Length: 6min 24sec (384 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021