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Horticulture

By Dr Ian Hall Truffles and much more RUFFLES, porcini and all the other edible mycorrhizal have a lifestyle very different to the Tmushrooms I talked about last month. Instead of growing on dead animal or plant remains, they form an intimate partnership with the roots of trees. So close is this relationship that neither the nor tree can survive without the other. And this relationship goes Left: A saffron milk cap fruiting in Hannes and Theres saffron milk cap plantation further because not just any tree will near Nelson. Right: A saffron milk cap bleeding its orange where the stalk has do for the fungus (and vice versa). been removed from the cap. For example, the saffron milk cap will only grow on the roots of while mushrooms and their ilk (see last than likely. the painted bolete grows only with month’s Lifestyle Farmer). A number of fungi that lurk in Douglas fir. Instead, the fungi first have to be put corners of greenhouses can also cause The fungi provide the tree with onto the roots of young trees of the problems because they can oust the minerals from the soil and in exchange right species. fungus of choice. So to give a buyer the tree provides the fungus with Of paramount importance is that confidence that the right fungus is carbohydrates and, most importantly, the nurseries producing the trees on the roots, some nurseries employ a place to live. ensure that the fungus is there in specialists who either use DNA Because of the intimate nature of sufficient quantity for it to survive techniques (Linnaeus laboratories, the mycorrhizal partnership, none of after the trees are planted in the field. [email protected]) or microscopic the true edible mycorrhizal mushrooms Obviously, if the wrong fungus is put techniques (e.g. hance.maria@gmail. can be cultivated using the techniques on the trees then the chances of the com and [email protected]) to check that have been developed for button right fruiting will be less what is there.

Some important edible mycorrhizal mushrooms

Some common names Scientific name Some host trees Typical retail prices for fresh mushroom sin NZ$ per kg based on an exchange rate of 1.00 = NZ $2.00

Italian white truffle ** Tuber magnatum Hazelnut, oaks, poplars, $5000 to $300,000 Périgord black truffle * Tuber melanosporum Hazelnut, European $1000 to $5000 lime, hornbeam, oaks Bianchetto truffle * Tuber borchii Beech, birch, cedar, $500 to $3500 chestnut, European lime, fir, hazelnut, hornbeam, larch, oaks, pines, spruce Burgundy truffle * Tuber aestivum Beech, birch, cedar, $50 to $800 chestnut, European lime, fir, hazelnut, hornbeam, oaks, pines, spruce Porcini * Boletus edulis Beech, birch, European $50 to $120 (and similar species) lime, oaks, pines cibarius and $50 to $120 deciduous trees ** Tricholoma matsutake Primarily pines $100 to $5000 Saffron milk cap * deliciosus Pines $40 to $80

* These grow naturally or are being cultivated in New Zealand ** Attempts are being made to cultivate these in New Zealand Photographs: Dr Ian Hall Photographs:

www.lifestyle-farmer.co.nz LIFESTYLE FARMER JUNE 2010 55 Horticulture

The painted bolete only grows with Douglas fir.

Alfredo Tofani displaying $100,000 of Italian white truffles (photo courtesy the Tofani family and Foto Paci). Two tiny saffron milk caps less than one centimetre across have begun growing from the mycelium decomposing the litter layer. Truffles and much more It is really important that the soil conditions and temperatures at the planting sites suit both the fungus and the tree. Truffles must have a free draining, high pH soil rich in lime. In the natural Périgord black, Burgundy and bianchetto truffle areas of , and , up to 50 per cent of the soil A bianchetto truffle forming just at the soil surface on Jeff Weston’s truffière at is limestone. West Melton, near Christchurch. Other less valuable truffles are often confused Similar soils are found in New with bianchetto. Zealand such as in North Otago, mycorrhizal mushrooms that fruit to John and Iris Burn in Ashburton, North Canterbury and the Hawke’s above ground do not require the soil who had to wait 13 years for their Bay but our most successful truffières to be modified and, provided the soil first Périgord black truffle. I had all (truffle plantations) have been on texture and nutrient concentrations but given up hoping they would be soils where the pH has been lifted by are acceptable, competing fungi aren’t successful, something John rubbed in adding large amounts of lime a year present, and the climate is right, trees with glee when he telephoned to give or two before planting, a technique carrying their fungal payload can me the good news. Delightful. pioneered in New Zealand and since Of course, the underground adopted in , , the USA be planted with relatively little site preparation. fruiting truffles carry with them and elsewhere. While sufficient water a major problem: where to look. The delay between planting and is also important, irrigation can make In the early days of New Zealand’s first production varies widely between up for any seasonal shortfalls. embryonic truffle industry there were the mushroom/truffle being grown, the One other important problem facing few specially trained truffle dogs. the cultivation of truffles and above location, and a whole range of other Alice, the pig on Alan and Lynley ground mycorrhizal mushrooms, are things some of which we know almost Hall’s Périgord black truffle plantation, competing fungi on the roots of trees nothing about – sometimes fruiting preferred to eat the truffles she found, at the planting site. For example, if bodies may never form even though later to be washed down with copious there are oaks, pines, poplars, willows a grower has followed instructions to quantities of avocado. And MAF’s Boss, or other ectomycorrhizal trees present the letter. New Zealand’s first successful truffle then the fungi on their root systems For the above-ground mushrooms dog, preferred to bark at cars. might become established on your the first production can be only 18 Then there was Juliet who was expensive new investment. So a careful months after planting but the truffles neither pig nor dog but an elegant choice of planting site is required. can take much longer. lady with the capacity to sniff out Unlike the truffles, many of the The prize for patience must go truffles – much cheaper than a truffle

56 LIFESTYLE FARMER JUNE 2010 www.lifestyle-farmer.co.nz Horticulture

Harvesting wild truffles and mycorrhizal mushrooms is a major industry in many Northern Hemisphere countries. Here Maria Cullen and Howard Fox collect hedgehog mushrooms, an Irish favourite.

Alan Hall hunting Périgord black truffles with dog Brock. dog, which might cost $10,000, and she saffron milk cap production on radiata Brown and Alessandra Zambonelli, would work all afternoon for a couple which last season generated more published 2008, available from Ian of glasses of wine. revenue per tree than the timber will Hall, [email protected] But before you rush out into the be worth at maturity (see the January garden fired up by the thought of the Edible and poisonous mushrooms of issue of the New Zealand Lifestyle riches 100kg of truffles per hectare the world by Ian Hall and colleagues, Farmer). per year selling for $4500 per kg will published 2003, available from Ian bring, and dig up your rose garden and Hall, [email protected] perhaps throw 100 tonnes of lime per Some further reading Truffles Mushrooms Mycorrhizas hectare at it (10kg per square metre), The website of Truffles and it would be a good idea to have a look For background information on Mushrooms (Consulting) Ltd. www. at our little book Taming the Truffle. mycorrhizas: Mycorrhizal associations: trufflesandmushrooms.co.nz And for the foresters among you who The web resource. http://mycorrhizas. are only interested in timber, dwell on info/index.html De Licio (Edible Forest Fungi NZ Ltd) Hannes and Theres Krummenacher’s Taming the Truffle by Ian Hall, Gordon www.effnz.co.nz LF

www.lifestyle-farmer.co.nz LIFESTYLE FARMER JUNE 2010 57