Maple Syrup Yield Calculator
How many taps, and how do you collect? Here's what an average, slow, and great season looks like in syrup.
About a quart of syrup per tap in an average season.
Seasons swing a lot with the weather. Open-grown trees with big crowns often beat these numbers; crowded forest trees and warm springs fall short.
A bucket tap on a sugar maple gives about 10 gallons of sap in an average season — roughly a quart of syrup — with 5–15 gallons the usual range. Open-grown trees with big crowns can double that.
Tubing changes the picture. Cornell trials measured 5.8–11.25 gallons per tap on gravity 5/16″ tubing and 10.3–18.2 on 3/16″ tubing laid on a slope, which pulls its own natural vacuum. Top producing states, mostly on vacuum, average 0.35–0.46 gallons of syrup per tap (USDA NASS).
Syrup is worked out from sap with the revised Rule of 86 at the sugar content you enter.
Sources
- North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, 2nd ed. (Bulletin 856) — The Ohio State University Extension
- Update on Cornell tests on 3/16″ maple tubing — The Maple News (Childs, Cornell)
- Maple Syrup: Acreage, Taps, Yield, and Production, 2024–2026 — USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- How to Tap Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup (Bulletin #7036) — University of Maine Cooperative Extension
More sugaring tools
- Sap to syrup calculator →
Gallons of sap in, syrup out — using the updated Rule of 86.
- Finishing temperature →
Water's boiling point + 7.1°F — worked out for today.
- Hydrometer correction →
Correct any reading to 60°F and check your density.
Common questions
- How much syrup do you get per tap?
- About a quart per tap on buckets in an average season. The top producing states — where most taps are on vacuum tubing — average about a third to nearly half a gallon per tap.
- How much syrup will 10 taps make?
- On buckets with 2% sap, about 2–3 gallons in a typical season — less in a short, warm season, more in a long cold one.
Your whole season, logged
LuckySap keeps every collection and boil in one place — sap totals, sugar readings, sap-to-syrup ratios, and a season you can compare next year. Free on iPhone.
