Tap Your Maple Tree in 15 mins/$15 make maple syrup

How to tap your maple tree in 15 mins using $15 worth of supplies from your local hardware store.

(AFTER MORE RESEARCH I'D RECOMMEND LIMITING TAPS TO 2 MAX, and SMALLER AT THAT)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Maple
• Syrup
• Tapping
• trees
• Sugar

[crowhillsugarhouse]

well i admire that you want to make syrup but you have made a few mistakes, for one too many taps in that tree for its size, usualy a tree that size would have at most 2 taps, and they would be further apart than you spaced them, by having them close, or cluster tapping, you make a spot of dead wood that is pretty big on that side of the tree. the next thing is the holes are way too big,7/16 was the standard but now 5/16 has been found to flow nearly as much and do much less damage to the tree

[midevilone]

@crowhillsugarhouse thanks for the tips.

[wheelori814]

how about drilling a hole in the top of the lid and fitting it with another one of those things you put in the tree?

[midevilone]

@wheelori814 we'll be moving out to our 5 acre property soon and I plan to do a better job of all of this using the things I have learned since.

[angrose]

Will tapping the same tree year after year damage the tree??? Also, how much sap did you yield from this particular tree?

[midevilone]

@angrose I got about 40-50 gallons before the warm spell kicked in.

[midevilone]

Well this was an experiment. Now that I have done a bit more reading and research, this attempt is somewhat embarrassing. Live and learn. :)

The most frustrating part for me is that we had a warm spell that caused the sap to spoil before I could boil it down so it was all wasted.

In all I got around 40-50 gallons from the tree.

The tree is not showing any signs of damage (yet?)

In any even I haven't retapped these holes and if I do it again, I'll drill a small hole and put a single tap in.

[Benyouknowthatguy]

@truecolour13 rape rape rape rape rape rape and maple syrup

[jibbabubba]

@truecolour13 that's a pretty weird word to come to mind. just sayin.

[solojam]

canada has the best syrup

[theeastwatch]

Hows this system been working for you? How much sap have you pulled?

-TEW

[Encryptomatic]

I applaud the initiative, but I too, would not recommend more than 2 taps.

If you REALLY want to go cheap, you can make a tap from one of those cheap Bic pens. Just pull out the ink, wash it up, and tap the hollow tube into a 5/16 hole.

[TheHoboPyro]

@crowhillsugarhouse your right, he does have too many taps too close together, but i believe you can have up to 3 taps per tree