The maple syrup season depends on temperatures rising above freezing during the day and falling below freezing at night. This change is what causes the sap to flow. With winters that are warmer and shorter, the season often starts and ends earlier.

4 to 6 weeks

Well it turns out you only need one decent size maple tree to make your own maple syrup at home. One large tree can produce enough sap to boil down into a quart of syrup.

Maple syrup can be made from any species of maple tree. Trees that can be tapped include: sugar, black, red and silver maple and box elder trees. Of all the maples, the highest concentration of sugar is found in the sap of the sugar maple.

Maple syrup production starts by drilling a taphole in the tree. This process injures the wood, which may become discolored or decayed as a result. If trees are to be tapped, every effort must be made to minimize injury while obtaining the desired amount of sap.

approximately 4 hours

Maple sap runs best when it freezes at night (in the high 20 degrees Fahrenheit range) and then warms up above freezing the next day (in the range of 40 degrees Fahrenheit and higher).

Day temperatures need to be in the 40°’s. If the temperature is too warm during the day or at night, the sap won’t run. Cloud cover will slow the sap running through the tree.

In professional maple syrup production, the maple syrup maker will boil anywhere from about five gallons to 13 gallons of sap down to about a quart of maple syrup. When the syrup reaches 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the boiling point of water (212 degrees F), or 219 degrees F, the syrup should be done.

Before opening, all maple syrup can be stored in the pantry about a year. After opening, genuine maple syrup should be stored in the refrigerator and will last about a year. Opened jugs of imitation maple syrup can be stored in the pantry for about a year.

They are going to “sleep” for the winter months and should not be encouraged to grow at this time by fertilizing or over-watering. In the winter, the maple tree has even less use for chlorophyll as the days are short and sunshine is scarce. Winter also brings challenges like cold, frost, and snow.

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) A particularly good cultivar is ‘Franksred,’ usually sold under the trade name Red Sunset, which grows to a manageable 50 feet and produces fairly reliable red color.

Plant the seeds about three-quarters of an inch (2 cm.) deep in moist peat moss and place them in a plastic bag inside the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days. Place the pots in a warm location when they come out of the refrigerator, and once they germinate, place them in a sunny window. Keep the soil moist at all times.

Moisten the bottom end of each cutting with water, and insert it no more than 1 inch into the rooting hormone. Gently shake each cutting to dislodge excess rooting hormone. Create a hole roughly one-half the length of one cutting in the middle of a plant pot using your finger.

Preparing nodal softwood cuttings Others, such as Acer palmatum, Cotinus, Lonicera, Jasminum and Sambucus, can be removed from the parent plant with a heel, pulling off the stem with a ‘tail’ of bark from the previous season’s growth. The heel is then dipped in hormone rooting compound.

It takes at least forty years for a maple tree to grow before it is big enough to tap. On a good growing site, and if treated well, a maple tree can be tapped indefinitely.

Most maples are trees growing to a height of 10–45 m (33–148 ft). Others are shrubs less than 10 meters tall with a number of small trunks originating at ground level. Most species are deciduous, and many are renowned for their autumn leaf colour, but a few in southern Asia and the Mediterranean region are evergreen.