Cutting Pine Trees Timeframe

[Two Trax]

I would like to cut down some tall straight white pines to mill next spring. I know ideal time would be January but I will not be around then. If I cut them Mid-Dec, would that be too early? I would like as little sap in them as possible when I mill them. 

I live in NE PA north of Rt 80. Thanks for any input.

[cutterboy]

Anytime now through February is good for April sawing. The sap will dry up in the trees and make for pleasant sawing. It is cold enough to keep the bugs away. I plan to log some of my pines as soon as the ground dries out enough to get to them. I'll mill them in April. The last two years I've cut down white pine in the fall and winter for spring milling and it worked out great. The sap dried out and there was no stain or bug holes. So TT, mid December would be fine or earlier if you want to.
 GOOD LUCK!

[AndyVT]

I am cutting pine now for sale to  local saw mill.
The weather is now regularly cold enough for the logs to sit for a while before they are picked up.
In warmer weather, 2 weeks from cutting is the max time you want to hold logs before shipping or using

[Two Trax]

Thanksfor the replies. The township cut 2 pines that were too close to the road last week. They left the logs for the landowner and the sap is coming out of the ends pretty good. That was why I asked. Seems they would be a mess to saw at this point. 

[DDW_OR]

following

I got 14 to cut down
first cutting is 4
next 5 around the house, before the high winds take them down and the house
finally all remaining trees. they can also hit the house and buildings.
Circumference average is 70 inches, or 22 inch diameter

[Don P]

I've got several large pines to saw that we felled a couple of weeks ago, there is not much pitch oozing at these temperatures. Pitch is the sticky gooey stuff, it doesn't really move up and down in the tree but is exuded in response to injury from specialized cells, most of which are in the inner bark and sapwood. They are also the longest lived cells after a tree is cut, continuing to produce and exude resin for some weeks after the tree is cut. I'm sure that production process and exudation happens a lot better in warm weather.

Sap is the watery food transport running up the sapwood and down the inner bark. That fluid column does not recover if any of the cells along the way aspirate, that column of cells dies. Sap cannot "go down" in the sense of the tree being drier or having less sap in it. Sap can flow or not depending on conditions but it is always there in about the same quantity

Pines do not shed their needles in winter. They have a shape and coating that helps protect them so they can keep photosynthesizing whenever light and temperatures allow. Many hardwoods carry on minimal life support through the winter through chlorophyll in the bark. Scratch the bark on a cherry or black birch, that green is effectively the winter "leaf".

In some trees, especially one exposed near the edge, you'll see a frost check, usually on the southwestern face of the trunk. Winter, early to midafternoon, the temperatures are well below freezing but the sun warms the trunk and the sap in the columns on that side starts flowing, diluting to lower viscosity it loses some of its antifreeze properties, the energy cycle from high school biology cranks up. The tree is making a little lean time energy and life is good. Some thin sweet sap starts flowing down the phloem just under the bark. Then a large cloud passes over. The surface temperature plummets, the sap freezes, expands and splits the bark and sapwood.

I don't know that that was all strictly textbook and hopefully others will tune that up if it needs it but my main point was, that question was complicated by some assumptions.