Maple tree question

[Hawkmoon]

I grew up in New England. I know about maple syrup and, in fact, the pastor of our church when I was a kid used to tap a few trees on the grounds of the parsonage and try to make his own syrup. Never heard how (or if) it came out.

Just read some comments about a throw-away movie in which the claim was made that one of the protagonists had planted a solitary maple tree amid a grove of pine trees, for the purpose of getting lighter, sweeter syrup. My immediate thought is, "BS." Pines grow much faster than maples. I think the maple would be completely blocked out by the pines and never grow. More to the point -- it was presented as if this was a common Vermont strategy. If so, it has escaped my notice for 74+ years.

Does anyne know if there might be a grain of truth to this little tale?

[charby]

Forestry degree here.

Sugar, Black and Red. Maples are fairly shade tolerant and will grow in the understory of a forest. They are suppressed from reduced sunlight but really take off as the trees around them die off, maple is usually a secondary tree in a forest maturation.

With the shape of pine trees, the maple will get plenty of light to grow. I could see a bit of stressing from less sun causing the maple to produce more sugar which would make the concentration of sugar in the sap slightly higher.

When the sap flows in the spring, it is 2-5% sugar, more towards the lower end. Takes about 40-50 gallons of sap to make a gallon syrup.

Sap does get starchy as the temps increase and there is very little sugar value in it.

Color is mostly determined by the temp when you draw off the sugar from the evaporator and/or later in the sap flow as it gets starchy.

[bedlamite]

You would get a lot more from a grove of maples thn you would from one maple in a grove of pines.

[MikeB]

I have not done the whole process by myself, but helped my grandfather when I was young when he made it. I did a few taps, helped collect the sap, and helped boil it down; but that was over 30 years ago. About 5 or so years ago I looked at my Uncles process when he did it, I think he stopped since it is a real hassle and the yield wasn't worth the effort for relatively small amounts. If I recall correctly one good tree tap at the end of the process equals maybe a 1/4 to a half gallon over the season and that is assuming you are getting a good sugar quantity out of the particular tree and the tree needs to be fairly large(old).

So depending on what the movie tried to claim about the volume. I kind of doubt the Pine trees would have any impact at all.