- [Mark] This is Mark Isselhardt,
Maple Specialist with University of Vermont Extension.
This is a Vermont Maple Minute.
Sap flows out of trees due to the difference in pressure
between the inside and outside of the tree.
In the 1950s, maple researchers and producers
found that adding vacuum pumps to tubing systems
could increase this pressure differential,
and thereby, increase sap yields.
At the time, repurposed dairy pumps were used.
Use of modern equipment, materials,
and techniques for tubing systems,
combined with a proper vacuum pump,
can result in yields two to three times higher
than that from traditional bucket or gravity sap collection.
The use of vacuum does not result in additional damage
to the tree.
This has been a Vermont Maple Minute.
I am Mark Isselhardt,
Maple Specialist with University of Vermont Extension.