Does tapping the tree do any permanent damage to the tree?
No. Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree. If spouts are pulled promptly after the season ends, the trees begin to heal, having the entire growing season to do so. Good tapping practices include avoiding a previous years healing tap hole and tapping farthest from the old hole as possible. A tree with one tap is considered average and generally a larger, healthy tree can support two taps. Many of the trees in our woods have been tapped for over 100 years.
No. Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree. If spouts are pulled promptly after the season ends, the trees begin to heal, having the entire growing season to do so. Good tapping practices include avoiding a previous years tap hole and tapping farthest from the old tapping wound as possible. As an additional precaution, we generally use only one tap per tree regardless of the size of the tree.
