Maple sap tubing trials were conducted in sugar bushes in five northern New York counties. (Photo provided — Michael Farrell)

LAKE PLACID — Narrower tubes might help maple farmers make more syrup, a Lake Placid study has determined.

Michael Farrell, director of the Cornell Uihlein Forest maple research center in Lake Placid, evaluated the production efficiency of two sizes of maple sap tubing in gravity-based collection systems: three-sixteenths and the traditional five-sixteenths of an inch. He measured them under both natural flow and artificial vacuum systems that suck the sap from trees. His report was released this month by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program and can be found online at www.nnyagdev.org.

The report concluded that using a narrower-gauge tubing will result in higher sap yields.

Farrell cautions that his report offers a first-year trial evaluation and that multiple years of data are needed to draw a firm conclusion.

“Our work now is to evaluate the consistency of the efficiency of this tubing over multiple years,” Farrell says. “Some producers want to know if the smaller diameter tubing is more likely to plug, while early-adopter producers are already interested in technical assistance for converting or installing new 3/16” tubing systems under natural gravity or a hybrid vacuum-assisted system.”

The farmer-driven NNYADP provides agricultural research and technical assistance in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. Funding for it comes from the state Senate. It’s administered through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.