So you want to grow truffles? Truffle trees are your key to your success. Truffle fungi are obligate symbionts, or wholly dependent on a host for survival. In the case of truffles, trees serve as the host organism and provide the truffle fungus with all of the carboyhdrates that are needed to grow and produce truffles. This is not a one way trasfer, as truffle fungi provide the tree with nutrients and water scavenged from tiny crevices in the soil, which are accessible to the thin fungal hyphal filaments but not the larger diameter roots. Some truffle species are pickier than others in regard to which type of tree they will partner with. The native American truffles that we hope to grow are known to engage with a variety of tree types, including oaks, hickory, chestnut, hazelnut, and willow. We are experimenting with both traditional spore-based inoculation and modern clonal inoculation and are evaluating multiple species of host trees. We aim to specialize on clonal nut trees as hosts, and enable economic co-cropping of truffles and nuts.
Most truffle tree producers inoculate trees that are good host trees for the truffle fungus, but poor producers of nuts for human consumption. The majority of truffle trees on the market are species of oaks that are largely inedible and seedling hybrid hazelnut that produce unmarketable nuts. We maintain a diverse collection of clonal chestnut, hickory, pecan, and hazelnut that have highly marketable attributes. Both our trees and fungal inoculum are produced using clonal methods ensuring the fidelity of the plant and truffle to its advertised specifications. Seed propagated plants and spore propagated fungi are a gamble of genetics and resulting fruit characteristics. This is not the case with our plants and fungi. Our truffle trees and fungal strains are confirmed by PCR analysis to be true to type. Watch this website to find out when clonal truffle trees are available.
Truffles, like many tree fruits, must cross in order to produce fruit. Be sure to select both a Mat1-1 and Mat1-2 tree to ensure crossing and plant trees so the root zones eventually overlap with Mat-1 and Mat-2 trees alternating in the row.