Never plug a hole up to start off, thats a no no, just let the tree heal itself, if you do plug you will only prolong the healing of the tree.
When i first started i made my own taps with wooden dowel rods, cut them to length and then drill them out and tapered the ends with a pocket knife and i also made some from sumac tree's the none poisonous type, very easy to make as the pith of the branches are hollow and one only need to push the soft pith out and taper the end to fit snuggle into the tapped hole..
I now only use 5/16 Soule spiles, as the holes are very small and much less work on the portable drill and they heal alot faster, no production is lost with these spiles..they are boil sanitized before the start of every season..
as for tapping times it will vary in ones location and one must watch the buds on the trees, when the buds start to swell the tree is going to start to produce a green sap or buddy sap to say, it will be very woody tasting and not appealing at all..yukky..you know its over when the buds are swelling up and ready to pop
as for sugar content: Reds are known to produce more sugar in the beginning of the season than a sugar maple, however as the season progresses the red will drop off more and more as for the black or sugar it will stay pretty much the same through out the season..
now a lot depend on the size of the tree canopy and there locations in your forest, so one must give the trees plenty of canopy space, deep woods maple will produce less than a edge tree or tree's more in the open in the woods..most of my trees(125+) have a 30 foot buffer around the trunk, then i watch the canopies of the tree's and make sure my maples are not blocked out by other species. if so those species will be taken out to allow the maple canopy to get larger.
The only maples that i know of that are tapped are: red, silver, Norway, sugar , black.
i know striped or mtn or fancy types are not tapped..
then these are also tappable, box elder and Birch types, however these have very minimal content of sugar and pretty much not tapped by most..
as for
tree identification during the winter when leaves aren't present..
Opposite Branching(look at how the little stems and branches match each other) and bark are the best ways..follow link for clues
http://www.ryersonwoods.org/p/wintertrees.html#opposite
Boiling in the house..CTChickenMom wrong it will get sticky even from year after year of boiling small batches., check down your vent pipe after a couple of boils, it will be sticky and a fire hazard..did you ever see sugar burn, its like gasoline when it burns..when you burn it in your pan, be prepared to have some muscle as well, not easy to get it off the pan even the solution they sell doesnt remove it easly..Just as well when boiling over a wood evaporator if it ever boils over move fast to get the flames out or you'll burn you sugar house down..Trust me ive been messing with maple syrup for almost 6+ years now..
Charlie
