This month will start the inoculations at nursery for the production of the black truffle infected trees in the Southern Hemisphere. ViveroTrufas under our licese is inoculation the Quercus ilex seedlings, from trees already growing in the Chilean territory.
The oak is a tree with a broad ecological range, in terms of soil pH, altitude, etc., and Chile, as happens in Australia shows a high growth rate, nearly double that of Spain. So it is easy to see plantations with oaks of 7 years old and 4 meters high!
The black truffle cultivation in areas far away from the natural production areas, where soils are mostly strongly modified especially to raise the pH, it is important to follow-up analysis of the level of mycorrhization. Early winter and late spring, mycorrhizas show the highest level of activity and therefore is a good time for such analysis in the field. In this case we were checking with Anibal Vial, a plantation of 10 hectares of hazel infected with Tuber melanosporum, owned by Southern Agricultural Truffles Ltd.
All the best,
Marcos Morcillo
trufflefarming 