Weeelllll, birch syrup tastes good as does birch wine, and it's one of those primitive technology things that is fun to do. I shall certainly not do it again though if there is a high risk of damaging or killing the tree.
The stark Truth about Birch-tapping.
- Thread starter JonathanD
- Start date
I guess its something particular to our Silver Birch? I have seen rows and rows of rubber plantations in Thailand where the trees are tapped continuously. I guess rubber is a different issue though?
I've been tapping for 4 years this year using a drill bit a tad smaller than a pencil all trees healthy and still producing lots of sap. we've done our whole birch woods so around 50 plus trees of all different ages and no fatalities or injuries
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Only that the popularity of tapping is on the up.
I can all but guarantee interest will soon be lost in this activity once experienced by the tyro but given the OP suggests it only takes one bore hole to ensure a terminal scenario that doesn't bode well for the birch.
Think I'll try a bottle of sap from Waitrose at c£2.99 and get it out my system that way, so to speak.
K
I work with kids and wanted to take them out tapping but then I read this thread and changed my mind.
On another note, is the sap rising at the moment? Obviously it's been an unusually mild winter so I thought maybe it has been and gone even.
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On another note, is the sap rising at the moment? Obviously it's been an unusually mild winter so I thought maybe it has been and gone even.
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In the good old days when Uncle Ray was not so well known, in Country Tracks he just stuck the tip of his knife into the tree and left a thin piece of wood in the opening, just required the minimum to close it.
I do not see any reason to wind a huge Auger bit into a tree.
If you have patience (like all Bush crafters should ) then a slow drip will eventually fill up your container.
I do not see any reason to wind a huge Auger bit into a tree.
If you have patience (like all Bush crafters should ) then a slow drip will eventually fill up your container.
As a kid, my granddad took me out tapping Birch (when the leaves were no bigger than "mouse ears" as per my granddads directions). We cut a slim limb and hung a bottle over the cut and tied the bottle to the limb, waited and then collected. We did not put on any sort of band aid.
It is 30 years since I did that and those trees are still there, all but one (which was taken down to make room for parking a boat).
Cheers,
Greger
It is 30 years since I did that and those trees are still there, all but one (which was taken down to make room for parking a boat).
Cheers,
Greger
I have never had a problem with Birch trees healing - none of my tapped trees have yet died.
Healed auger holes
Healed auger holes
I have never had a problem with Birch trees healing - none of my tapped trees have yet died.
Healed auger holes
I don't doubt you John but I'm curious as to why your's have survived where Jonathan's haven't. Any idea as to what's the difference?
If there's birch polypore present most trees won't live very long anyway. Perhaps tapping them accelerates the process opening them to the infection sooner.
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I have been tapping for what must be five years this year to get the sap to make syrup and have done almost all trees each year and none have died or shown any signs of injury to the tree, even the pencil sized holes bored are healed up within a year or so, as mountainm said about polypore, we have almost none around this area?
denny 😊
denny 😊
i think this is an important point. I've used a thin auger too - just big enough to make a hole to take surgical silicon tubing - and just deep enough to hit the cambium layer. I'm not aware in die off in any tree thus tapped - so I agree with Denny there though would like to hear from others who have done it this way.
Am I right in supposing that the use of big one inch augers is a case of applying the technique used from tapping sugar maples? After all, birch sap is much thinner and flows like water so I've never seen the need for such a big hole. Also making the hole deep enough to hold a spigot capable of supporting a collection bucket again seems excessive. It's easy to use tubing or support a bucket with paracord.
I would think the tree has a much easier job sealing a small, shallow hole that doesn't penetrate deeply into the heartwood. And the quicker the tree can seal the wound, the chance of infection is reduced.
Thanks Jon for starting this thread. I guess lots of people have been using the big, deep hole method because it is shown in so many u-tube clips and talked about in so many blogs that it seems to have become the commonest method.
And thanks for the careful observation - I bet a lot of people have never checked back on trees they've tapped - without it this issue might never have been raised. Guess we'll all be taking much more notice now!
So maybe this is a case where bigger isn't better - or in other words, small is beautiful!
This is a truly useful, socially responsible thread, and my thanks to all tho have contributed thus far.
Ray Mears does make me wonder sometimes. There he is, in the Canadian backwoods, travelling light and simple like the old voyageurs and Indians, and then suddenly he produces this whacking big auger from somewhere (possibly hidden with a load of other carpentry tools for making his traditional canoe the Indian way - pfft!) and he gouges this deep, wide hole right into the birch tree. And taps the hole with a spigot. It struck me at the time as crass.
Maybe the voyageurs - some of them, anyway - were crass and didn't care about the health of the trees, but I can't imagine Indians ever doing that. Neither can I imagine any Stone Age people doing more than making shallow cuts just into the cambium, or cutting a small branch as others here have described. They would have chosen a method that didn't need specialist tools and were willing to wait - they were rich in time, and didn't need industrial quantities.
Ray Mears does make me wonder sometimes. There he is, in the Canadian backwoods, travelling light and simple like the old voyageurs and Indians, and then suddenly he produces this whacking big auger from somewhere (possibly hidden with a load of other carpentry tools for making his traditional canoe the Indian way - pfft!) and he gouges this deep, wide hole right into the birch tree. And taps the hole with a spigot. It struck me at the time as crass.
Maybe the voyageurs - some of them, anyway - were crass and didn't care about the health of the trees, but I can't imagine Indians ever doing that. Neither can I imagine any Stone Age people doing more than making shallow cuts just into the cambium, or cutting a small branch as others here have described. They would have chosen a method that didn't need specialist tools and were willing to wait - they were rich in time, and didn't need industrial quantities.
I was taught to cut upwards and not that deeply and then to lift the wee flap with a stick so that the liquid ran down the stick and dripped into a container.
When I had enough, just to remove the stick and tap the bark firmly back down. Sometimes they run a bit but usually they seal up pdq. Any running should flush out the cut anyway.
Then I saw all the augers and spiles being used and thought maybe that's how I should have been doing it
We have a lot of fomes fomentaria and piptopurus betulina fungus around here, yet the trees we tapped are still rock solid and healthy.
I still think that this thread's a good idea. It makes us think about what we think we're doing
M
When I had enough, just to remove the stick and tap the bark firmly back down. Sometimes they run a bit but usually they seal up pdq. Any running should flush out the cut anyway.
Then I saw all the augers and spiles being used and thought maybe that's how I should have been doing it
We have a lot of fomes fomentaria and piptopurus betulina fungus around here, yet the trees we tapped are still rock solid and healthy.
I still think that this thread's a good idea. It makes us think about what we think we're doing
M
You're just down the road from me.
Is the sap rising where you are yet or is it another week or 2 ?
I know that in a wood somewhere south of Ashford there is Birch polypore fungus, I would be surprised if it isn't in the Maidstone area too...
J
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We've got birch polypore growing down in harrietsham but other side of the vally where I am it's almost non existent, some now and again but not got it's hold up here. Sap starts here around the last week in March generally.
Has anyone else used a straw? I drill a hole about as deep as the bendy bit on a straw, pole the straw in and collect like that.
denny 😊
Just got back from my first tapping trip here in south Wales, just outside Swansea. The first trees I ever tapped about 5 years ago with a 7mm drill are all fine and healthy I am glad to report. Not so glad about the yield, the sap is not fully flowing yet, and i only got about 1 litre off 4 trees in 20 hours.
rancid badger
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
A method I was introduced to a couple of years back, simply involves taking a stout stick and whacking off a couple of lower spindly branches, causing the sort of damage to the tree that might occur naturally from falling upper branches, passing animals or perhaps strong wind damage?. In this case it was done deliberately to clear pathways but you get the idea. Using the branch stump as a hanging point for a billy or other container, you could easily have a few litres in no time.
[video=youtube;YLbHcnRWDUE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLbHcnRWDUE[/video]
To be honest, unless you have a genuine need to harvest the stuff (pretty pointless in the UK and mostly legally contentious anyway) I wouldn't bother. I was involved in some experimental tapping with the Forestry Commission at one point about 7/8 years ago and we used augers and spiles. The tree's we tapped appear to be fine but the amount of sap required to be of any real use for reduction to syrup or sugar is ridiculous and drinking the stuff raw soon pales.
Play responsibly and stay out of bother or your mam will belt you round the lugs
cheers
Steve
[video=youtube;YLbHcnRWDUE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLbHcnRWDUE[/video]
To be honest, unless you have a genuine need to harvest the stuff (pretty pointless in the UK and mostly legally contentious anyway) I wouldn't bother. I was involved in some experimental tapping with the Forestry Commission at one point about 7/8 years ago and we used augers and spiles. The tree's we tapped appear to be fine but the amount of sap required to be of any real use for reduction to syrup or sugar is ridiculous and drinking the stuff raw soon pales.
Play responsibly and stay out of bother or your mam will belt you round the lugs
cheers
Steve
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