18 replies to this topic

[PJammer24]

Does anyone have experience growing truffles? I am trying to take full advantage of the resources at the farm. The farm had at one point operated as a tree farm. We have sections with different types of trees. I just started taking advantage of the maples to produce maple syrup... We evaporated our first two batches last week and will be working on the 3rd this weekend... 

 

I would like to inoculate the oaks with truffles if possible. I have found online where I can order inoculated saplings and wait for them to adequately mature but I am hoping there is a way to inoculate existing, mature trees... If anyone has any experience with this I would appreciate your input... 

 

I have only begun to research my options and I have a general idea of how it could work using a slurry. I suspect the slurry would need to be injected into the substrate rather than simply being poured over the base of the tree... PH should also be an important factor so I will have to see where we stand on that front.

 

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!!

 

PeeJ

[Mycol]

Following this

[YoshiTrainer]

Could you buy an inoculated sapling and plant it next to a mature tree? In a year or two, cut off the top of inoculated sapling, leaving it's root system intermingled with the mature tree? Maybe from there, try root propagation of that mature oak and repeat with other mature oaks?

[scott_1971_h]

AFAIK they are usually grown from innoculated oak seeds, and do best in fairly fertile, moderately wet soils in not-too-hot but hilly places. Not sure if thats the fungus's best habitat, but its certainly oak's. The truffles found near/around Turin cost *squillions*, if that counts for anything.

I'm guessing innoculated oak seeds, grown in a deep seed tray, would be a good start, any way. Good luck. (I think you can purchase the innoculated seed from seed stores. Maybe actually ring a local truffle farm and ask them where they got theirs?

 

Deep seed tray:

 

Attached Thumbnails

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[PJammer24]

The inoculated sapling route is certainly one I could take. I think that if I was going to go with saplings, I would simply plant a fresh truffle orchard rather than attempt at using the saplings to inoculate the existing trees. I am going to attempt to use a slurry to inoculate the existing trees and inject it into the root system to inoculate... I just don't know if that will work...

 

I am just starting to do the research and had asked here before proceeding in hopes that someone may have experience doing something similar.

[scott_1971_h]

Asking at a truffle farm would save a lot of trial and error (read: time and money). Also, are there any truffle channels on youtube, like there are 'ordinary' mushroom channels?

[PJammer24]

I received cultures for both black and gold truffles. I also got equipment to test soil PH, etc... I will likely order some truffle saplings also and try a two phase approach... If the PH is appropriate where there were oaks planted when our farm was used as a nursery, then I am going to try to inoculate the roots with a slurry... My sister has an Italian truffle dog that I will try to train to find them but it may be a season or two before we can harvest if it does work... It could be 5-7 years before harvest with the saplings.

 

I have looked into truffle farms in my area and I would have to travel a few hours to meet with a farmer in person... I don't know how receptive they will be to giving me trade secrets via email or phone but it is worth a shot. The mushroom community is typically pretty open to those who show interest...

 

Wish me luck, I may need it!!

[scott_1971_h]

Luck wished :-)

Also check this out:

[Direct Link]

[PJammer24]

I wish I had sound on my computer at the office... I guess I do have speakers I could hook up if I chose to... They are pretty ancient but would do the trick for a truffle video!!

 

After giving this more though and with truffle cultures in hand, I think I may try a two prong approach. After expanding the cultures, I will attempt to inject the existing trees with truffle mycelium... I think it would require a direct inoculation into the roots rather than simply dumping a slurry across the surface... The one potential problem with this is that the soil has likely already found a balance with the existing fungi in the section of the woods where the oak trees were planted... I suspect a slightly different balance was found in the section with the maple trees (we started using them for maple syrup this season and we killed it!!)... I am going to try to inoculate the existing trees but I may also try to start and inoculate my own saplings rather than purchase them from an existing farm... As long as I get the substrate right with the right PH, this really shouldn't be too hard. There are acorns all over the place on the farm so I can just start them myself.

 

I could start them like this:

 

"Place them in a large zipper bag with damp sawdust, vermiculite, peat mix, or another growth medium that can hold moisture. You should be able to fit up to 250 acorns in especially large bags. Put the bag in the refrigerator for a month and a half or longer - as long as is needed to germinate the new oak"

 

I could also try to start cuttings but in the grand scheme I don't know that this would speed up the process fast enough to bother. Using a few of the many thousands of acorns that hit the ground each year should suffice I would think.

[PJammer24]

As I have looked into this further, I don't think that inoculation with LC will suffice. It seems that truffle orchards can be easily over harvested. With the removal of viable seeds through the harvesting of truffles, orchards can stop producing... There is potential that inoculation with LC will produce viable fruit in the short term on a level high enough to produce spores for subsequent years but my fear would be that there would not be production in the first year that is prolific enough to produce the spores needed for germination in subsequent years... It would only take a small fruit or two to have spores needed to produce more in following seasons so it might work but from what I am reading, the saplings are inoculated by dipping the roots in a spore solution rather than using LC... There is obviously a reason why they are doing this and I'm having trouble putting a figure on it...

 

idk...

[PJammer24]

https://www.research...hizal_Mushrooms
 

This has some information regarding different ways to inoculate and is promising considering my preferred approach...

[kcmoxtractor]

IME, American truffles lack the flavor of European truffles and chefs aren't very interested in purchasing them without a serious discount from the typical price. The only exception to that is pecan truffles, which are outstanding IMO. Pecans just don't grow in the Northeast.

I found out about the price thing from a Food Network dinner I attended, one of my customers is on the network frequently as a judge for cooking competitions.

[scott_1971_h]

[scott_1971_h]

 

Where exactly are you, PJ?

[PJammer24]

IME, American truffles lack the flavor of European truffles and chefs aren't very interested in purchasing them without a serious discount from the typical price. The only exception to that is pecan truffles, which are outstanding IMO. Pecans just don't grow in the Northeast.

I found out about the price thing from a Food Network dinner I attended, one of my customers is on the network frequently as a judge for cooking competitions.

 

There are farms on the east coast producing European truffles in the US. From what I have read, the American Truffles are primarily on the west coast or at least that is where they originated. The saplings I have looked into purchasing that are already inoculated are black and white European truffles. The two cultures I purchased to attempt doing it on my own and to attempt inoculating my existing oaks are white and black European truffle... My problem is that while oaks are listed as a potential partner tree, I can find nowhere that pin oaks are specifically discussed and pin oaks are what I have for the most part. I may try to start my own European oak species and inoculate them if I hope to have this work since I am unsure that the oaks I have at the farm will suffice.

 

I have some Beech trees on the property, European Weeping Beech that are really cool trees, but I have already been told that I am not allowed to go digging in the roots since those particular trees are much loved... My birch trees seem to have died in recent years. Oak and Hazel seem to be the most often used over sees so I will likely be planting European Oak species if I am unable to inoculate the existing pin oaks or pin oak saplings.

[PJammer24]

Scott, I am in zone 6, mid atlantic region

[PJammer24]

Attached is a pdf of some truffle info I got from a farm North Carolina. In our email correspondance, he said that with the existing fungi in the root system it would be very hard to introduce the truffle mycelium and that it would be too expensive to create the amount of inoculate needed... Expense would not be the issue for me since I can expand the culture myself but I think that it would take too much effort.

 

He said that he can not say if the pin oaks will produce truffles or not and that it is a 10-15 year experiment that may not be worth the time. 

 

He said that Burgundy Black truffles are probable best in my area since the ground does freeze and other black truffles require a harvest later in the season and would be hard to harvest or may not grow due to my region. He said that white truffles are still experimental in the US and that they may not produce.

 

I will likely buy a number of trees from an existing orchard and attempt to inoculate pin oak saplings on my own. If they pin oak saplings don't produce, I will still have a chance of the purchased saplings producing.

 

 truffles.pdf   144.38KB   145 downloads

[scott_1971_h]

How did this work out? Did anything come of it?

[Myc]

What about making some colonized dowels for plug spawn?

 

By introducing inoculated dowels - drilled into the tree (strategically and conscientiously) -

It would seem that if you get into the living cambium layer which is just under the bark, and introduce inoculated dowel spawn, then seal the would with some wax.........

That should inoculate the living tree.

 

Let's just say that I would try it with mature trees just to see if it would work.

Of course, you must keep in mind the health of the tree and the potential impact of multiple inoculation points. If one were overzealous - you might compromise the health of the tree.

It would seem that several small inoculation points would not have much impact. Just like tapping a tree for sap - if you're careful the tree stays healthy and delivers sap year after year.

 

Just my .02