Truffles - the restaurant kind

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TeeDee

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Nov 6, 2008
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Truffles - the restaurant kind

What would be typical/ideal growing environments for these? And how could one colonise an area if one wanted with it?

Ideas.
 
Apparently it took Prince Philip 10 years to successfully grow the prized black truffle on Sandringham estate.

He did it by apparently importing hundreds of hazel and oak saplings impregnated with truffle spores in 2006. So it sounds like it'd be a big undertaking to do it yourself and quite a few years before you might see any results
 
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Apparently it took Prince Philip 10 years to successfully grow the prized black truffle on Sandringham estate.

He did it by apparently importing hundreds of hazel and oak saplings impregnated with truffle spores in 2006. So it sounds like it'd be a big undertaking to do it yourself and quite a few years before you might see any results

And I assume Morels would be similar.
 
And I assume Morels would be similar.
I'd have thought they might be easier to do as they're already native to this country.

Possible dig up the ground (with landowners permission) around the fruiting body after they've spored and transport a large lump to where you'd want to establish them
 
Just for interest, I got sent this last night. The show is today, and it’s high season for truffling.


FungI do what they want, you can’t easily make them grow wherever. Mysterious things, sometimes you think it’ll be a great season for mushrooms, warm, wet, and nothing shows. Other times, there are loads.

Best Morels I found were growing in the wood chip in a recently created planting outside the local vets.
 
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There should be plenty of info online but from my past investigations truffles tend to be grown from trees inoculated with spawn and can take several years to produce anything. Importantly the soil type is important, alkaline if I recall, so not something I can do here on our acidic soil.

In a previous house I mulched a few areas with cheap bark chips and was surprised to discover a crop of morels, probably within a year. We had chalky soil there so I'm not sure if that's important but morels would seem easier to establish.

Quite common to find in towns and cities where areas have been mulched I gather.
 
I know nothing about truffles but as an ex horticulturalist I know that there is an intimate relationship between root fungus and a tree. I also know that it is very specific, not just to species but to subtle variations in variety. We used to get problems replacing old apple trees. They often suffered “specific replant disease” which many of us put down to the soil biome. I think you will need to import a tree into very similar soil to get results - eventually.
 
Once they're established, you'll need a pig
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or a trained dog to find them. :rolleyes:
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I was given an oak sapling in a pot supposedly with truffle spore in it about 15 years ago (maybe more) - the tree has not grown a great deal so I've not investigated it for truffles :)

Other sapling, planted about the same time, are ten times as big!
 
Just for interest, I got sent this last night. The show is today, and it’s high season for truffling.


FungI do what they want, you can’t easily make them grow wherever. Mysterious things, sometimes you think it’ll be a great season for mushrooms, warm, wet, and nothing shows. Other times, there are loads.

Best Morels I found were growing in the wood chip in a recently created planting outside the local vets.
Morals are very special indeed esp unexpected finds.
 
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The thing about fungi is, it is very difficult even impossible to know what kinds are growing until they fruit.

If they fruit at all.

You may have dozens of edible fungi on your property and never see a single mushroom :|

All you can do is try and create the right conditions, maybe introduce some spores from fruiting fungi...and wait hopefully.
 
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typing error morels aha.
You can make whats known as a blewitt bomb. You take leaf litter that has had wood blewitt mushrooms in and distribute in a similar environment else where. Ive done a few only this week. I will post the results (if any)
Sorry I cant comment on truffles but the above is interesting I think.
 
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You can make whats known as a blewitt bomb. You take leaf litter that has had wood blewitt mushrooms in and distribute in a similar environment else where. Ive done a few only this week. I will post the results (if any)
Sorry I cant comment on truffles but the above is interesting I think.
Ok I'm try that wood blewits personally probally my favourite ,love the parma violet aromas.
 

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