Truffles - Spore Prints

[Atlas]

I have been doing a bit of reading a dearches on truffles and have notcied a few old posts on truffles explaining having to use oak and hazel trees to grow.

contrary to stubborn legends, truffles can be cultivated. As early as 1808, there were successful attempts to cultivate truffles, known in French as trufficulture. People had long observed that truffles were growing among the roots of certain trees, and in 1808, Joseph Talon, from Apt (département of Vaucluse) in southern France, had the idea to sow some acorns collected at the foot of oak trees known to host truffles in their root system.

Truffle Market in Carpentras

The experiment was successful: years later, truffles were found in the soil around the newly grown oak trees.

In 1999, the first Australian truffles were harvested in Tasmania[citation needed], the result of eight years of work. Trees were inoculated with the truffle fungus in the hope of creating a local truffle industry. Their success and the value of the resulting truffles has encouraged a small industry to develop. A Western Australian venture, The Wine and Truffle Co., had its first harvest in 2004, and in 2005 they unearthed a 1 kg truffle. In 2008 an estimated 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) of truffle were removed from the rich ground of Manjimup. Each year The Wine and Truffle Co. has expanded their production which is now widely accepted as the premium Australian producer and exporter. Production is expanding into the colder regions of Victoria and New South Wales.

Has anyone here heard of anyone getting hold of a spore print or every trying it, I think it would litterally be wroth its weight in gold to give it a go, I would like to look into a bit more.

[PD.]

Prolly easier to just get an innocd tree, im fairly positive that they are for sale from the tassie farmer and others. Saw the tas farm on tv just the other day, there looked to be thousands of seedlings all innocd and ready to go in the one greenhouse they showed. A guy around here is farming them, havent been to check it out but will eventually, wan try his saffron aswell <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

i think i saw them for sale at one of the big garden centres, might have been doyles or one of the flower powers.

[Atlas]

Prolly easier to just get an innocd tree, im fairly positive that they are for sale from the tassie farmer and others. Saw the tas farm on tv just the other day, there looked to be thousands of seedlings all innocd and ready to go in the one greenhouse they showed. A guy around here is farming them, havent been to check it out but will eventually, wan try his saffron aswell

 

Bloody hell, that shortened my search, thanks for that, i'll see how to obtain one.

[Ace]

Truffles Australis

Have a look there for a good start. Also check out their guides to creating a truffle orchard. It looks like a pretty epic task but I imagine the pay off would more than compensate!

[Magicdirt]

It looks like the tree would be the best way to go.

I saw a story about the western Australian company on landline(I think) a few years back and their lab was top secret and no cameras were allowed in.

Apparently they had made some breakthrough in the propagation of truffles, who knows what it is, it could be a symbiotic bacteria or just a different procedure to other fungi.

They had spent a large amount in R&D and they were guarding their research to protect their investment.

But if you do find source for a print I'd be interested.

It could be easier to clone but then you'd be dealing in proprietry genetics and could run into trouble if you ever wanted to sell them.

[gecko]

You wont get spore prints of truffles, they rely on animals eating them

(why they smell and taste so good), and dispersing them when they shit.

You could try low-tech approach.

-sow some acorns in pots

-get a truffle (or part of one if you can resist eating it all)

-drop it in the blender with water and buzz it a few secs.

-Water it around the roots of the germinating acorns or young oaks.

-grow for a year or two and plant out.

you could check to see if any mycorrhizae have formed while in the pots.

It may be difficult (but not impossible once you know them) to tell truffle mycorrhizae apart those of 'weed' species of fungi.

Thelephora terrestris is a common species that will grow mycorrhizae on pines, oaks and other exotic trees in nurseries.

To sell these as inoculated trees would then need extensive checking and guarantees etc.

I'm not sugesting to do that, but for growing at home could be a fun and interesting way to go.

Ive had partial successes inoculating Pines with other mycorrhizal species.

I mean partial, in that they haven't produced mushrooms yet.

but the mycorrhizae have formed on the roots of trees in the pots.

Worth a shot.

I have 1 and 2 yr old oaks in pots ready for spores this year.