tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post3113038173045981212..comments2024-03-28T23:22:41.774-05:00Comments on TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): Totally rethinking maple syrupMinnesotastanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-27030277868422866452014-01-23T08:56:03.897-06:002014-01-23T08:56:03.897-06:00Here's a link to the most well-informed observ...Here's a link to the most well-informed observations on this topic at the Boing Boing comment thread linking to this post -<br /><br />http://bbs.boingboing.net/t/new-discovery-about-maple-sap-could-revolutionize-syrup-industry/20136/66Minnesotastanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-36056343628252282262014-01-22T08:48:50.975-06:002014-01-22T08:48:50.975-06:00Maple trees use photosynthesis to produce carbohyd...Maple trees use photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates such as sugars. This is used to fuel growth during the growing season and also to store amounts in the root system to fuel the first growth of leaves the next season. It takes fuel to make buds grow into baby leaves. Once conditions are right in the spring, ground water plus stored carbs are made available (rise) to the buds (which are initially tiny and formed in late autumn after leaves fall). Once the buds have enough warm weather and enough lack of sub-freezing nights, the leaves break out of the buds and this results in the roots stopping sending sugars up. The sap turns sour when the buds open. If you take too much sap from a maple, it adversely affects this initial leaf growth, so it might affect the new growth (research will show this). Perhaps they could research sapling size/sap withdrawal/growth rates across many seasons with differing percentages of sap withdrawals to determine optimal draws. There is a market for high-density (slow growth) maple wood where the growth rings are nice and small. The other advantage as far as sap production is that a denser woods converts more of the sunlight falling on an acre of ground via photosynthesis since there is more complete coverage of the ground by shady leaves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-31004434384112094882014-01-22T08:30:29.755-06:002014-01-22T08:30:29.755-06:00With more trees planted closer together I would th...With more trees planted closer together I would think this would be even better suited to a vacuum system than harvesting from more "wild" trees spaced at irregular distances? But yeah, you would have to work out the minimum acreage needed to justify the cost of the vacuum system.Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14544679914276602288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-77337192793962759912014-01-22T08:11:52.243-06:002014-01-22T08:11:52.243-06:00But understand that to harvest the sap using this ...But understand that to harvest the sap using this method, one needs vacuum-generating apparatus that might not be cheap or suitable for a 1-2 acre lot.Minnesotastanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-14343833552288106902014-01-22T08:02:52.452-06:002014-01-22T08:02:52.452-06:00This could actually benefit small farms.
" an...This could actually benefit small farms.<br />" an acre of what is now called “the plantation method” could sustain 5,800 saplings with taps yielding 400 gallons of syrup per acre."<br /><br />Thinking of the "urban farm" movement... City blocks average around about 2 acres depending on the city. Buy up a block or two of abandoned land in places like Detroit? <br />-Or in other areas plant a couple rows of trees between fields as wind breaks to reduce erosion and/or drifting snow?<br />Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14544679914276602288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-25361273449344302842014-01-22T03:41:14.273-06:002014-01-22T03:41:14.273-06:00This is the result when people are coming out of t...This is the result when people are coming out of the blue and they are doing things as specialists (similar to people from urban areas coming on the country side and giving advices on agriculture and how to grow live stock). I like that: "Nobody wondered why trees didn't grow downwards ?" :))) Cata Linhttp://catalinsimion.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-82018712484920919912014-01-21T21:51:11.475-06:002014-01-21T21:51:11.475-06:00Um... yea. What WilliamRocket said. How can they n...Um... yea. What WilliamRocket said. How can they not have already known that sap rises? More importantly, don't they know that sap rises due to transpiration & water loss in leaves? Which means that a stump isn't going to have very much flowing sap, flowing for very long. Not to mention the fact that stumps don't grow very well anyway. Leaves are important. I am also wondering whether this was a joke article.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-80140318211009954032014-01-21T18:26:29.894-06:002014-01-21T18:26:29.894-06:00Everyone knows that maple sap goes sideways, not u...Everyone knows that maple sap goes sideways, not up or down. That's why the taps and tubes work because it's trying to go sideways anyway. And why branches grow out of the sides of trees. <br />Sometime hold a bottle of maple syrup upside down. You will see that since the sap prefers to go sideways, none will come out of the bottle.Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-28901817957105034562014-01-21T16:44:18.072-06:002014-01-21T16:44:18.072-06:00a lot of farmers are using smaller tress these day...a lot of farmers are using smaller tress these days.<br /><br />i think it's not the size of the tree, but the health of it and the soil it grows in. the sugar content of the sap makes a difference in how it boils out.<br /><br />right now in vermont we are worried about crown damage because of the weather we've had recently. apparently a sugar maple needs its crown to make sugars that come up in the sap. bad crown damage will decrease yield not in the season immediately following the damage, but in the season AFTER the first summer when it has fewer leaves.flaskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02926786246931651655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-12412417786276924352014-01-21T15:28:05.107-06:002014-01-21T15:28:05.107-06:00As a biology teacher, I would point out that it ta...As a biology teacher, I would point out that it takes many years just to establish a sapling. The impact of repeated tapping to a sapling would be greater than that of a mature tree. So the longevity of the row crop, even without severing its head (or crown) would not be long. These other factors, beyond the flow of sap under vaccuum, might well make the current system a better choice. So fear not, my purests!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-58739672579802883722014-01-21T13:58:48.410-06:002014-01-21T13:58:48.410-06:00I have always known that sap rises, I presumed it ...I have always known that sap rises, I presumed it was common knowledge.<br />Anybody that has ever grafted a plant knows that sap rises.<br />There is even a common saying about rising sap.<br />If I had known that nobody else knew that, I could have had my 12 minutes of fame (inflation adjusted).<br />Seriously ? People thought that sap flowed downwards ? from the top of the tree ? <br />Nobody wondered why trees didn't grow downwards ?<br />Don't mean to sound rude, but was this article a joke article ?<br />And, obviously a large mature tree will produce far more sap than a sapling, so I believe nothing much will change in the maple farming process.<br />You were all kidding me, hey ?<br /><br />WilliamRockethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06353376414079333348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-63783063682142465472014-01-21T13:29:07.470-06:002014-01-21T13:29:07.470-06:00Is there a difference in the taste or quality of s...Is there a difference in the taste or quality of syrup made from mature trees and that of the saplings?Classof65https://www.blogger.com/profile/15620524862669295761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-83520658602319824442014-01-21T12:12:18.402-06:002014-01-21T12:12:18.402-06:00It would be a pitty to see yet more small farms wi...It would be a pitty to see yet more small farms wither and disapear. My wife spent a few years on a farm as a kid and maple syrup was very important to them.JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.com