The problem is without the hard freeze, the sugars in the sap are more starches. It's the hard freeze that triggers the trees to create the sugary sap as they are the early sap flow from dormancy. Trees go dormant during the hard, cold winter. The early release of sugars gets the tree's sap flowing and early spring growth started. Once the tree's circulation is in full swing again, it is producing the starchy sap.
i planted 50 last year got em cheap from nationwide trees most still doing well 2nd wet spring Rob Avis suggested they would like some shade. and they do ,the ones under thistles,vetch ,chicory etc are more healthy
I'm happy to let all sceptics in the forum know that it is in fact possible to produce Maple Syrup down under. We've been harvesting sap for the last 6 years from trees grown in Tasmania at low altitude. This means that on the mainland at higher altitudes there should be no problem at all in producing viable sap. The trees are approximately 20'years old and are about 300mm thick on the main trunk. However new research out of the United States have concluded that size and age have no real bearing on sap production, health of the tree etc. A research group has been harvesting sap from very young trees with great results. Trees, sap spiles, (taps to get sap out of the tree) and books on production are available at Maple Grove Nursery.
In the spring, alternating warm days and below-freezing nights causes the sap in trees to flow. This happens in all trees, but not all trees’ sap contains sugar as the sugar maple’s does. Maple sap from the trees contains about 2% sugar, while finished syrup is between 66%-70% sugar. What that means is a lot of water must be boiled off to concentrate the sweetness. Once it’s at the proper consistency, the syrup must be filtered to remove impurities and packaged in sterile containers. Voila, liquid gold! The thing about sugar maples is that without a full dormancy period you don't get the high (2%) sugar content sap, the trees never rest and thus are actually flowing weaker (less sugar content) sap than an deciduous tree that gets the very needed "sleep" of winter dormancy. This said, you could grow sugar maples in areas that never get cold enough but you would be looking at more than 80 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup. The rule of thumb is about 10 gallons of 2% sap per tap on a good year, or about one quart of finished syrup.
You make aqua panela out of it it is this sugar, and lemon juice and of course water. I don't think it is very healthy at least not for your teeth.