Progress 10/01/20 to 09/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience for this project is maple producers and landownersacross New York (NY) and the entire northeastern United States (US), midwest, and mid-Atlantic. This project is geared directly towards landowners with abandoned agriculture fields that are currently not bringing in economic value to the landowner. These maple producers and landowners are often within areas with little to know economy within the region, high property tax base due to lack of value in the surrounding propertiescontributing to the local tax base.During the reporting period, the entire year was spent setting up the research project and actual producers and landowners were not reached. Target audience will be reached in year 2 and year 3. Changes/Problems:It was a challenge to find the volume of trees that we needed at the size that we needed and find them for a reasonable price. Once I found trees it was hard to find a trucking company to get the trees to us. This delayed the planting date. I also had to plant slightly smaller trees. The trees were acquired though and they were put in the ground in the summer of 2021. So far, it looks like the trees have all survived and will be ready to be tapped in the spring of 2022. Where we had to spend additional on the trees we were able to cut expenses on some of the equipment by using a different method for sap collection that utilizes existing equipment that we were able to utilize by finding a way to route maple vacuum tubing through a culvert under the road. A major change is that I was not able to find larger silver maple trees as initially proposed. The nursery industry no longer grows them to this size as there is not a demand for the trees. Instead I went with a red x silver maple hybrid that is still a fast growing trees. It may actually be a better results as the sap sugar will more than likely be higher. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Year one was focused on establishing the research project. Opportunities for training and professional development will come in future years once the trees are tapped and sap is collected. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Trees will be tapped for sap collection to quantify total production per acre in a high-density maple orchard. Trees will also be tapped in an adjacent native forest to collect sap data and compare with the high-density maple orchard (objective 1). Sap will be collected separately from the sugar maple and the red x silver maples to compare production potential from the two species (objective 4).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Being year one, the project was primarily in the establishment stage of the maple orchard. The abandoned field was reclaimed and prepared for planting. Thirty fivesugar maple and 35 red x silver hybrid maples, each 10-12 feet tall, were planted to establish the high-density maple orchard. This will allow us to tap the trees in the spring of 2022 for comparison of yields (objective 1), wounding within the younger trees (objective 3), and determine whether the straight sugar maple or red x silver maple hybrid will perform better.Cost comparison of planting a maple orchard were completed (objective 2). Planting trees of this size will cost close to $100,000 per acre (600 trees to the acre) in just plant material. This is not economically feasible. To do this in a realistic setting (not under time constraints of a research project) smaller trees (sapplings) would need to be planted.
Publications
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