No, but it sure has felt like Spring in Iowisota this past week. The unseasonably warm stretch has continued, and all the snow is now gone. The maple sap has been running for at least two weeks; this is a couple of weeks to a month earlier than normal. In fact, it was too warm for the sap to run for part of last week! (Sap only runs when the temperatures are below freezing at night and above freezing during the day; it is a hydraulic process related to water pressure and freeze/thaw cycles.) We have fired up the new sap boiler and 1½ gallons of syrup already bottled. This has been a great opportunity to test out the new equipment, so we’ll know how it works when we host the syrup-making event in early March. Despite this early warm-up, I do expect some additional winter chill and hopefully a return to more normal conditions. I don’t expect subzero cold to return, at least not for long. The sun is gaining power as the days grow longer.
The big question on my mind and heart is how this weather will affect the trees. I’m so grateful for that 12” of snow we received in early January, which was able to melt into the soil with very little runoff, as the frost was already coming out of the ground. But we haven’t received significant additional rain or snow now for several weeks, and I am anxious. The exceptional drought from last summer was eventually broken by fall rains, but our winter snowfall has been inadequate, and we are already back into moderate drought status. I pray for rain.
The other question that niggles in the back of my mind is whether tapping the maples early will hurt them, especially if the drought becomes more extreme. Chatter in the Facebook maple syruping forum has many voices expressing different opinions.
I am not too concerned that my early tapping will hurt the tree, because I will only tap a tree once per year. If my tap hole in a tree dries up (because the hole heals or the vessel elements around the hole get dried out and clogged), I won’t tap that tree again this year. If it seems that I need more sap to extend my season, I’ll tap a different tree. I can do that because I have many trees to choose from, and I don’t need to unduly stress a single tree.
The many voices seem to say that properly tapping a tree doesn’t hurt the tree. I’m generally pretty light on our trees. I mark where my tap holes were, and the next year I evaluate whether the tree had the vigor to quickly heal those holes. I don’t tap trees that are low vigor or appear to be struggling, and I generally only put one tap per year into even larger trees. I didn’t tap at all last year. (We were busy building a house or something like that!).
I was not too concerned about the moisture deficit when I first tapped two weeks ago, because there was plenty of moisture available in the soil from the melting snow. But if we don’t get Spring rains, I will be worried. Not because of the small wound I made to the trees, but because of the overall stress of water deficit. Wearing the hat of a “forest health specialist” for over 30 years has made me very aware of the lasting impacts of drought on tree health. I’m rather fond of our trees.
I’m not sorry I tapped maples this year, but I am hoping for rain! If we don’t get rain, we won’t get morels! But that is a story for another day.
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