Quercus suber with Tuber melanosporum
In some areas in Catalonia there are some natural cork oak (Q. suber) truffiers producing Tuber melanosporum on acidic or neutral soils. We are currently studying these peculiar truffieres to understand its biology and wrote about it:
In fact, we had been producing infected cork oaks mainly with borchii, but also with melanosporum. However there is a lack of data about yields for black truffle orchard with corks.
This week we had been visiting a 12 years old orchard of Q. suber mixed with Q. coccifera (kermes oak, a bush oak). As you may see in the pics it is a high density orchard (4 x 2,5 meters), and the aim of the bush is to be able to increase this density without closing canopy and so allowing sun light to reach the ground.
As the area has natural low pH the owner added limestone before planting to raise it and, It is a sandy loam soil with excelent drainage and consequently high water demand, The farm has a lack of water so the grower decided to instal a drip irrigation system and adittionally to use some mulchings. The orchard started to produce at year 5 and keep on working quite well.
Note our team will be visiting truffle plantations in California at the end of June-early July this summer. If anyone interested contact Marcos at marcosmorcillo@micofora.com
Cheers,
trufflefarming 
Interesting association project. The Quercus Suber prefers acidi soils though, do you have any information on how the trees are faring with the addition of limestone?
Hi Mauro, Quercus suber tolerates perfectly liming on surface, although with pH over 8 they present (not always) some clhorosis and yellow leaves that can easily be treated…cheers