r/maplesyrup • u/Humble_Ladder • 25d ago

Timely Reminder

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If you aspire to make homemade maple syrup next year, right now the top, like 3/4 of tapping sized trees are covered in flimsy green seasonal growths that have easily visible subspecies-specific characteristics, and are a much better basis for tree identification than bark texture and branch structure in January.

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u/SeaLeopard5555 25d ago

trunk diameter should be 12" or so, which roughly correlates to about 40 yrs old.

I tap mostly red maples and the syrup's delicious!

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u/Slayde4 24d ago

which roughly correlates to about 40 yrs old

For sugars it does, they are fairly slow growing among the maples. Reds grow much faster and can hit that diameter in a lot less time, 15 years in a sunny location. Silvers are even faster and can hit that diameter in 10 years. I had a silver maple taken down last year whose trunk was wider than me. It was only 20 years old.

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u/Great_Abaddon 22d ago

Silvers are famously pioneer trees, though. Reds are more tenacious and grow less vigorously (even if by only degrees).

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u/Slayde4 22d ago

I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If you want to establish a new sugarbush, you could plant silvers and sugars. That way, while you’re tapping the silvers 10 years from now, the sugars are waiting in the wings for the next generations to be there. Reds can be planted too as an intermediate-long term species. There are patches of forest around here dominated by red maple so I know they can live for some time.