Growing truffles: the noble mushroom in your own garden

Truffle is considered valuable and is extremely popular. Here you can find out how you can grow the mushroom yourself in your own garden.

The truffles or the truffle - the name of the truffle mushrooms is regarded as feminine or masculine - are so-called mycorrhizal mushrooms. Both their network of hyphae, the mycelium through which they are supplied and the fruiting bodies typical of mushrooms form the truffles underground. The truffle only becomes a mycorrhizal fungus because it enters into a symbiosis with the roots of other plants, which are mostly deciduous trees. As usual for a mycorrhizal fungus, the truffle supplies the plant with nutrients and water. In return, the underground fungus is supplied with sugary and high-energy products from photosynthesis in the tree.

Searching with truffle pigs and truffle dogs

Truffles were already very popular in earlier times, so that due to unheard of harvests, the comparatively low yields today make the mushroom a sought-after and expensive delicacy. When harvesting the noble good, people seek help from animal noses. The truffle pig is certainly famous, but it has now become obsolete and has been replaced by truffle dogs. These are more agile, easier to train and do less damage to the fungus than the omnivorous truffle pig.

Not everything that grows underground is truffle

In addition to real truffles, the name is also used for other mushrooms that are not even closely related to the delicacy that grows underground in symbiosis. Even mushrooms that live above ground and are more plant-based parasites than living in symbiosis are allowed to adorn themselves with the nickname “truffles”. To the genus Tuber - the real truffles - there are still other types, many of which are important in the kitchen.

Grow truffles yourself

It is romantic to imagine that fine noses of dogs or pigs catch the truffles Track down the weighed and lonely deciduous forests, which later turn the pasta into a delicious experience refine. But reality looks different. The mammoth proportion of the truffle that finds its way into the elegant kitchen is now specifically grown in truffle plantations. Truffle cultivation is also increasing rapidly in Germany. Naturally occurring truffles are also protected and subject to strict harvest regulations. But the truffles can also be brought into the home garden. The easiest way to do this is through trees that have been inoculated with the spores on which the truffle reproduces. There are some factors to consider in truffle cultivation that decide whether to harvest or not to harvest.

Truffle variety

Not every type of truffle will thrive in all conditions. Therefore, one should choose depending on the geographical location and climatic conditions. In many places in German-speaking countries, the Burgundy truffle (Tuberaestivum var. uncinatum) proven. It copes well with the various local conditions encountered in this country and can enter into symbiosis with the native tree species.

Location and climate

The site conditions must of course be adapted to the preferences of the tree being planted. As usual, waterlogging should also be avoided when growing truffles. The pH of the subsoil seems to be an important parameter. A neutral to slightly alkaline soil with a pH around 7 to 8 is optimal. Since conifers quickly acidify the soil, truffles are rarely found near them.

The climate of our temperate latitudes is well suited for various types of truffle. Light frost encourages the fruiting bodies of the underground inhabitants to ripen. However, permanent double-digit minus temperatures can result in permanently frozen ground and the loss of the truffle harvest.

Propagating and planting truffles

As usual for mushrooms, the truffle also reproduces via spores. Since the real truffles belong to the sac mushrooms department (Ascomycota), they can generate these spores to reproduce sexually or asexually. The roots of the trees with which the fungi enter into symbiosis are then inoculated with the spores of the respective truffle variety. This is done in special operations on young trees grown in containers. These are then sold as vaccinated goods and planted out. Which trees are selected for inoculation with the truffle spores depends on the suitability of the tree as a truffle host. This can be determined based on the duration until the first truffle yield and the amount of yield. The following tree species have proven to be particularly good hosts for the Burgundy truffle, which is preferred in this country:

• Hazelnut (Coryluscolurna)
• Beech (Fagussylvatica)
• Oak (Quercusrobur)

When planting, the space requirements of the trees must be taken into account. A distance of five meters in all directions ensures that the tree will have the space it needs for the next few decades. Autumn or early spring before budding have proven to be the best time to plant trees. After planting in your own garden, an irrigation ring should be left around the trunk of the tree and the tree should be watered well.

care

No extensive maintenance is required to maintain optimal conditions for the truffles. If good starting conditions (pH value and aeration of the soil) have been created, only the Overgrowth below the truffle tree kept somewhat in check in the first few years after planting will.

Harvest real truffles in your own garden

If the roots of the host tree have been inoculated with the spores of the truffle, they first form a fine network of hyphae, the so-called mycelium. It can quickly take five years for the first coveted fruit bodies to form underground, which are supposed to find their way onto the plate as a delicacy. However, it shouldn't take more than ten years before the first truffles can be harvested.

The truffle harvest time is around autumn and winter and can extend from July to February. During this time, the coveted fruiting bodies of the valuable mycorrhizal fungus are repeatedly reproduced underground. An important keyword here is underground: How can you tell where the truffles have formed on the tree roots? After all, it is not beneficial to dig up the whole garden to track down the mushrooms. In earlier times, truffle hunters used truffle pigs for this. In the meantime, these have been replaced by truffle dogs, who have an equally fine nose, but can be used much more gently for the soil, trees and truffles for harvest. Alternatively, you can carefully track down the mushrooms by hand in the top layer of the soil. In terms of quantity, a harvest of up to 1 kg can be expected if the conditions are optimal and the tree has already reached a handsome size.

Of the Alba truffles is by the way the most expensive food in the world. We clarify why its price is so high and other facts in our special article.