I made an interesting observation over the past few weeks. Around mid-March I cut some trees down that were leaning over my leach field in order to open up the backyard for more light into my vegetable garden area. We still had over two feet of snow on the ground and it had just started getting into the upper 30's for highs. Most of the trees were red oaks and with a few white pine and white birch. Right around this time everyone was starting to collect sap for maple syrup season and it was around peak time for it. The largest oaks were 10-12 inches diameter at the base and fully live trees. When I cut them, the stumps were bone dry. The stump of the white birch was visibly wet a few hours after dropping it. After a few days the sap was pouring out of the white birch and still is over 3 weeks later. The red oak stumps are still bone dry. When you think how long it takes to dry oak vs. white birch it's funny the difference in spring sap.
Sap vs. Drying Time
- Thread starter Chimney Smoke
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Thats interesting, and I observed almost the opposite last Nov/December. Sugar maple stumps were very dry while the Red Oak seemed super saturated with sap. Neither of the stumps ran sap but the Oak was soaking wet to the touch.
The Sugar maple was the driest wood I cut up that fall.
Maybe Oak is just really late.
The Sugar maple was the driest wood I cut up that fall.
Maybe Oak is just really late.
Oldman47
Minister of Fire
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