- [Instructor] Hello, this is Mark Isselhardt,
Maple Specialist with the University of Vermont Extension.
Winter is almost over and spring is almost here.
It's time to make maple syrup.
Each season, sugar makers have to drill a new hole
if they want to collect sap.
The reason for this has to do
with how trees respond to wounds.
When a hole is drilled into the stem of a tree,
the tree responds to that wound
and produces a barrier inside
to prevent large infections from taking place.
This process is called compartmentalization.
Sugar maples are particularly good at making this barrier.
It does take a little while,
and that allows for sap to be collected for a few weeks.
But eventually, the tree heals over the wound,
both internally and externally,
and will prevent large scale infections from happening.
The staining associated with this response to the wound
is much greater above and below the taphole,
versus side-to-side.
If you've ever cut into a piece of sugar maple wood
that's been tapped,
you've probably seen these long narrow areas of staining.
That stained wood will not conduct sap anymore
so sugar makers have to move new tapholes
all the way around the stem in order to find clean wood.
After the sugaring season is over,
the tree starts growing again
and the tree actually grows new wood
over where the old wood and the wounding took place.
Over time, a tree adds enough wood
that you can tap directly above or below old tapholes
but it may take 20 years
for that to happen.
Good, healthy trees will grow more wood faster.
So it's a good idea for maple producers
to carefully tend to their trees
and make sure that tree health is a priority.