Birch tree sap! (tapping)

[Timelord]

Pine resin is the oft quoted one for glue but you could probably use others. It would be an interesting experiment for the knowledge base.

[Scythe13]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZJR_dGQgP8

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(13 May 2013, 14:58)Timelord Wrote: Pine resin is the oft quoted one for glue but you could probably use others. It would be an interesting experiment for the knowledge base.

Video is pine glue.

I'm sure it's doable form another tree. I was thinking willow, but that's aspirin you get from them.

[Timelord]

Any sap that is resinous could be tried out for glue.. Unfortunately my armchair is too far from the door for me to make it that far. lol.

[Metroyeti]

Pine resin heated with charcoal was used by early man to help break antlers into smaller sections to be used as tools

[Highlander]

....and pleased dont forget to plug the hole after removing the sap or the tree will `bleed to death`

[MaryN]

I'm bringing this post back up because it has great potential. Has anyone tried the sap?

[T-oddity]

I've done a fair bit of tapping birch trees, even on one occassion for a specialist confectionary maker. by all means have a go at this to learn how to do it, but please do not do it on a large scale, invariably the tree will continue to weep even if the hole is well plugged and many will become infected by fugal attack which will kill the tree. This was brought to my attention a year a so ago and as a consequence I checked out many of the trees I had previously tapped and found it to be the case, so have stopped tapping.

[Ranger]

Just read today that birch sap is the latest magic elixer that gym bunnies are starting to get into as a natural energy drink. The supplies are coming from eastern Europe and the Baltic states where they still have vast forests of birch so die off from disease due to tapping should hopefully not have a hugely detrimental effect overall on the health of the forest eco-system. Now, considering that it's being marketed towards human hamsters, it's probably going to be seriously overpriced and will probably be adulterated with preservatives and god knows what else but as an opportunity to at least try the stuff without damaging/killing the trees it may be worth a try.

[T-oddity]

There is a lot of tapping of trees in various places in the world that has gone on for many years with out any obvious major impact, and in some locations like Canada the same trees are tapped year on year without any real detriment to the trees, when I was doing it here in the UK I was turning my own hard wood taps and bungs and thought I was doing a carefull job of it, I don't know if it is due to climate or strains of fungi that we have here, it does appear that trees in the UK are more susceptible, I suspect that it maybe due to our warmer maritime climate that most silver birch here have a lot thinner bark except for those growing at higher colder altitudes.

I had a look on youtube for a good example of the method I now prefer and didn't find one that really covers it, this was the only one that comes close unfortunatley it isn't the best of vids, if the guy on the vid is doing your head in fast forward to 20:32 on the vid the last bit explains a bit about injury to the tree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2CmIEQF6kU

[Devonian]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...treet.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsb...water.html