Date of Award

Winter 2025

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Natural Resources

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Heidi Asbjornsen

Second Advisor

Matthew Vadeboncoeur

Third Advisor

Steven Roberge

Abstract

Maple tapping guidelines rely on the understanding of nonconductive wood column (NWC) formation, but this process has only been studied in sugar maple and may be ineffective at advising producers in their tapping activities due to the variation in wounding between sites and the lack of research into alternative species more recently being brought to market. The goal of this study was to investigate sap sugar concentrations and sap yields as predictors of nonconductive wood column (NWC) volumes in five Acer species: sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), and boxelder (Acer negundo). To complete this assessment of NWC predictors, we tapped 15 trees of each sugar maple, red maple, Norway maple, silver maple, and boxelder for two consecutive years to gather sap yields and sugar concentrations before felling a subset of each species and analyzing the overall wound volume. Our findings suggest that while sap yield and sugar concentrations are not strong predictors of NWC volume, NWC formation is similar or smaller in Norway maple, red maple, and boxelder compared with sugar maple. This implies that tapping guidelines developed in sugar maple may be sufficient for these other Acer spp.. Further, we found that sap yields from Norway maple, silver maple, and boxelder are similar to traditionally tapped red maple, suggesting that these species are promising candidates for tapping and syrup production. Future studies should include an examination of depth to heartwood in the alternative species as well as vessel anatomy as a predictor of NWC volume.

Download

Share

COinS