This area was last mowed around a month ago. Autumn rain has greened the orchard, and the trees with active truffle colonies are quite visible.
- Within the truffle burn (brulé -french for burnt) there is still some live grasses, but the burns are quite distinct compared to the inactive trees. There no herbicides used in our truffle orchard at any time, the visible depletion of grass above is entirely due to the action of the truffle mycelium in the soil, where it lives on the tree’s roots.
- There is a newly producing tree centre of the photograph and two more trees with truffles at 2 and 10 o’clock positions. There are also nice brule’s around the trees in the foreground, left and centre right. As can be seen elsewhere in the photo, not all the trees have visible signs of truffle activity, and may never develop any.
- Does a brulé mean there will be truffles? Simple answer, no, it’s just more likely to produce. There are other competing fungi that can cause burns, and the truffle may not be ready to fruit this season, or lack some other requirement. Active trees can also skip a few seasons before producing again, or become fully inactive.
- Loose leaf litter is raked away from the brulé as it provides an environment for insects.
- The hazel suckers are removed, sometimes leaving one and removing an angular branch. The primary goal of this is a tree shape which promotes soil warmth in Spring which start’s next season’s truffle activity.
- Grass near the trunk is removed by careful cultivation, removing insect shelter.
- There are also three near surface truffles on this tree (white tags), and a rotten one was removed.
- This process took an hour, and there are 400 hazelnut trees in the truffle orchard, so priority is currently given to active trees. The rest will be done as time permits.
Oak trees are easier to clear, but a little late for this as it one had a rotten truffle on the left side of the trunk, with insects sheltering in the grass likely culprits. The tree was double trunked several years ago, and was converted to a single with gradual pruning for minimal impact on growth.
