Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVII, Issue 1
Written by Cristina MĂNESCU, Miruna TUDORACHE, Gabriel DĂNILĂ, Paul ILIESCU, Valerian SIMIONIUC, Elisabeta DOBRESCU
The collection of birch sap in spring has become, in the past decades, a regular practice in Romania, because of its multiple health benefits. Over the years, many collectors experienced unsatisfactory results in terms of the amount of sap harvested, usually attributed to the unpredictable spring weather of some years, with large variations from a day to another. The results of this study revealed that independently of weather conditions in spring, the best period of sap harvesting in North-East of Romania was between 25th of March - 5th of April, when the air temperatures did not exceed 15oC. Trees higher than 20 m were most productive. At the end of the growing season, tapped trees were smaller than those untapped. These results suggest that in time, the tapped trees are less productive due to loss of vigour rather than spring weather conditions.
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