Tapping Season
A sugar maple should be about 40 years old and be 10 to 12 inches in diameter at chest height to get one tap. Across the region, the tapping season typically starts early to mid-January (the first-day sap is collected), ends at the end of April (last day of sap collection). For the sap to flow readily from the tree, the daytime temperatures need to be in the mid-30s to low 40s, with overnight temperatures below freezing. The alternating freezing and thawing cycles create pressure differences in the tree that force sap out of any holes in the tree.
On average, the length of the tapping season is about 37 days. If the sap is harvested after the trees begin to bud, the quality of the sap drastically changes and cannot be made into syrup.
