Sugar maple...
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I've got 7 kinds of maple on my property and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is the slowest to grow by a long way. At 35 yrs., it's still a mid-sized tree. I know because I planted 5 yr whips 30 yrs ago, thinking I could harvest maple sugar in my lifetime. Not going to happen. They are still half the size of Silver Maple planted at the same time.
Without a number of leaves plus a good guide book, even I could not tell some of the species apart. I suspect that the trees that were marked for cutting were not real sugar maple.
Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) yup, almost the same spelling as sugar is very easy to identify and grows fast and is fairly brittle OK for burning but semi-soft wood.
Box Elder Maple (Acer negundo) is very soft, brittle, super fast growing and I would consider it to be invasive. Lots of knots and a PITA to split. It's hardly worth burning and has a slightly foul smell when cut.
Both Silver and Box Elder have a ton of small branches and messy to deal with.
I was cutting large Silver Maple on the weekend that were badly damaged in an ice storm. Both the Silver and the Box Elder were hit hard by the ice storm mid-winter but most of the other trees are OK.
Without a number of leaves plus a good guide book, even I could not tell some of the species apart. I suspect that the trees that were marked for cutting were not real sugar maple.
Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) yup, almost the same spelling as sugar is very easy to identify and grows fast and is fairly brittle OK for burning but semi-soft wood.
Box Elder Maple (Acer negundo) is very soft, brittle, super fast growing and I would consider it to be invasive. Lots of knots and a PITA to split. It's hardly worth burning and has a slightly foul smell when cut.
Both Silver and Box Elder have a ton of small branches and messy to deal with.
I was cutting large Silver Maple on the weekend that were badly damaged in an ice storm. Both the Silver and the Box Elder were hit hard by the ice storm mid-winter but most of the other trees are OK.
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