Truffles are very useful and extremely expensive mushrooms. The cost of one kilogram of these fruiting bodies can reach several thousand euros. Therefore, if you master the right technology for growing truffles and create optimal conditions for growing these mushrooms, you can truly enrich yourself. True, the harvest will have to wait a very long time (up to 7 years). And all this time, the area sown with mycelium should not be trampled down.
Truffle (from lat. Tuber) – belongs to the genus of marsupial mushrooms. The fruit body of the fungus is tuberous, fleshy, grows underground at a depth of 10–20 cm. There are many varieties of truffle. Basically, truffles grow in the forests of southern France and northern Italy, but they are also found in Our Country, Belarus, our country, and Central Asia.
How to grow truffle mushrooms is described on this page.
What do truffles look like
The truffle is a saprophyte. It forms mycorrhiza with the roots of trees such as oak and beech, and feeds on organic matter from the soil. Fruiting bodies, as a rule, are irregular flattened, rounded or oval in shape. The surface is fibrous. The color of a truffle depends on its type. In the context, mushrooms can resemble potatoes or have a marble appearance. There may be streaks with colorless rims. Bag-shaped bags, with spherical spores and blunt spines. Not all types of truffles are edible. The most valuable are French black, or Perigord, and white Piedmontese truffles. In Our Country, there is mainly one type of truffle – summer. These mushrooms are searched for with the help of specially trained dogs and pigs. Sometimes you can independently find truffles under the rotten foliage – midges hover over them.
Black, or winter, truffle has a rounded tuberous fruit body with an uneven surface of black or dark gray. Its size varies from a walnut to a medium-sized apple. The pulp of the fruiting body is reddish, after ripening it becomes purple-black. This mushroom has a strong aroma and delicate taste.
Edible mushrooms contain substances inherent in both plants and animals. Their number and concentration are not constant and depend on the season, weather, ecology and other conditions. In summer, with a lack of moisture, the concentration of animal substances in mushrooms increases greatly, and the mushroom itself becomes poisonous from this.
What truffles look like is shown in these photos:
How to grow truffles the right way
Growing mushrooms such as black truffles is possible only in oak, hornbeam, walnut and beech groves. It is on the roots of these trees that this fungus grows, forming mycorrhiza with them. You can use natural or specially planted groves. Another important condition for the growth of this fungus is a warm climate. The truffle does not tolerate too severe frosts in winter and high temperatures in summer. It needs mild winters and cool, humid summers. Truffles can only be grown in calcareous soil. In addition, the soil must be well-drained and rich in nutrients.
Artificial cultivation of truffles comes down to laying plantations and adding soil from the natural habitats of mushrooms to the soil.
Before growing truffles, it is very important to choose the right place for the trees on the roots of which mushrooms will grow. It must be protected from all extreme weather events, shielded from other plants as well as animals. The land must be freed from shrubs and other fungi. The site must be located at some distance from other trees that may affect the growth and development of truffles. The soil should be checked for pH. Why place a soil sample in a small container and pour a little white vinegar into it. If the mixture sizzles a little, then the soil is not suitable for truffles – it needs to be alkaline. To do this, lime should be gradually added to the ground. Then you need to plant several trees – oak, hazel, beech, hornbeam.
In order to properly breed truffles, the mycelium must be brought in along with soil taken from the natural habitat of mushrooms. To do this, you need to dig a mycelium at a depth of 10-15 cm and place it next to the trees. You can also break the ripe fruit body of the fungus into several pieces and put it next to the roots of the seedlings. Now some companies sell walnut tree seedlings with truffle spores already grafted on. When planting such trees, additional land from the habitat is not needed. Mycelium transplantation should be performed in late summer or early autumn.
An important condition for growing truffles is abundant and regular watering of the plantation in the summer with warm water. You also need to make sure that no one tramples on it. Harvest appears 5-7 years after planting seedlings. Fruiting lasts for 25-30 years. Fruiting bodies are usually located in the soil in nests of 3-7 pieces each. When truffles ripen, the ground above them rises a little, and the grass near the nest dries up. These signs serve as the beginning of the harvest. As a rule, truffles ripen in autumn and are harvested until winter. Each mushroom should be wrapped in parchment and placed in dry rice – this way moisture is retained in the mushrooms. Moreover, they should not be completely cleared of the earth. The earth protects mushrooms from loss of taste and from microorganisms. Mushrooms should be kept in the refrigerator.