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WeatherWhys-Maple Tree Tapping Season

By: Jeff Matthews

Updated: February 19, 2013

Today's WeatherWhys question comes from Dianne in Deerfield, who is curious about maple syrup and tree-tapping season. As I explain here in the video, there are 3 maples (for which NYS is known), the Sugar, Red and Black Maples. The tree-tappers begin considering their tapping in late January. The height of their activity is usually late February, and lasts up to 6 weeks long. They need temps to range from below freezing at night, to above 40F in the daytime, so that the sap freezes at night, but runs (into their taps/buckets or hoses) by day. They begin by drilling about a 5/16" hole, inserting a tap, and either having a bucket under the tap, or connecting that tap to a hose, which is a vaccuum hose, and runs to a collection center where the sap is processed into syrup. As a side note, the Sugar Maple is most efficient, as it produces more syrup per gallon of sap, versus it's Red and Black counterparts. If the temps are less than ideal, the sap (and thus the syrup) is less than best.

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