Tapping Black Walnut trees for sap/syrup

That just isn't true. Many folks around here tap all sorts of maples. Sure, sugar maples have the highest sugar content but others have enough to merit tapping. Some folks near here make most of their living tapping soft maples. These are river maples, massive trees. Some can handle 4 or 5 taps.

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Libertarindependent

I was delighted to hear people around here tap the maples that grow closest to their homes, throw it on their cookstoves, and wait for it to cook down. Without that knowledge I would have never considered making my own syrup.

there are other trees that can be tapped for syrup, like birch, but I don't think I'd do walnuts with their juglone.

you might do a search?

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My dad said when he was a kid they used to tap Box Elder trees. Not as sweet as maple but he said it was ok syrup.

Tooth powder from Walnut hulls yeah I want my store bought teeth stained with some thing made from walnut hulls. Thats what the South dyed the confederate uniforms with. It is a permanet dye. Had a friend that is in to reinactment last fall pick up a couiple of five gallon buckets to dye uniforms with.

DH works with a guy who taps his maple and birch trees. The birch sap has to cook down longer. I think he combines the two saps. Has been doing it for years, and must like it because he keeps doing it. Don't know about walnut though, might be interesting.

If you have any walnut trees? why research? go out and experiment. They say a picture is worth a thousand words... a taste is worth even more.

If you don't have walnut trees... what's the point? As an owner of walnut trees, I can safely say I'd never do anything to harm them, such as poking holes in the bark to drain sap (even if the sap 'was' good for making syrup) as the damage to the wood value would be forever. Walnut wood can be very valuable, if the trees have good wood (without flaws, wire, nails, etc.). If you don't have walnut trees, it'd take a decade or so to get one large enough to hang a bird feeder from.... they grow mighty slow, even on perfect sites. I know of some BW's that were planted at the beginning of the War of Northern Aggression, that are just now getting large enough to make some nice saw logs...

But, since you were 'researching', and you asked the question, I answered it, by saying that Black Walnut isn't high on the list of sugar making trees (and it does have compounds that are deadly to horses, and has a 'natural' herbicidal effect on other plants, within it's drip line... very few plants or trees will survive under a BW canopy. If you don't like my first hand experience, do as I suggested, try it for yourself. First hand experience is always best... my bitter might be your ambrosia...

I've always thought it best to gently tell someone that what they're doing is inadvisable, but if they want to do it anyway, nothing beats experience...

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I agree with texican, the logs are just to valuable to be drilling holes into them.
Since they are "real slow" growers I'd wonder if'n the tap hole drilled into them wouldn't cause more damage over time only cause it is such a slow healer? Sure would give bugs, etc time to do their thing.

Please tell me where they are worth more?

I had 2 trees that had to come down, so once down, the smallest of the 2 was 24" dia x 22" dia x 20' long. They were both straight without knots.. I tried to sell them and got offered $25 for both logs if I loaded them on the guys trailer..

Needless to say I told him I would turn them into firewood first..

They did make some beautiful clocks... The rest became firewood. I even had a saw mill with in 2 miles of me and they didn't even want it...But then at that time they worked for weyerhouser (sp) only and didn't do other work..
I still have plenty of BW around.. In fact I'm getting ready to use my chainsaw and try and slab out a 11 -15 ft log.. It will make some nice boards for me to use..

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Black Walnut is used to make fine gun stocks and handles among other things. It's one of the more valuable hardwoods native to NA. Getting a good price for it will require contacting someone interested in using it, not just someone whose going to turn it into firewood.

I think the key is potentially more valuable.... try selling caviar to redneck ----------s and all they see is catfish eggs in a bowl... To some folks, wood is wood... to others, wood has value and good walnut is immensely more valuable than sweetgum. I really wouldn't pay a premium for it, as I don't need the wood. I've got a good stack of BW in the barn that I swapped out even for with cypress logs. But then again, I'd not sell my handful of trees... probably for any amount of money. They produce many bushel baskets of nuts each year...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming