The title of this talk by Dr. Xavier Parladé is ‘New findings on the life cycle of black truffle and their relevance in the management of plantations’. Again videotaped from the back of the room with some shaky bits and missing sections at the end. Think of it as an illustrated lecture. If you pay attention, it’s the overview of the current science and what Micofora’s Marcos Morcillo calls ‘disruptive’. It covers DNA, mating types, mycelium testing as an indicator of truffle growth, what research is next, and a short summary of how to apply the research in practice.
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Barcelona’s Conservas Coll – truffle buyers
As we arrived at Conservas Coll just outside Barcelona, owner Manel Coll was paying a hunter for his wild truffle. Manel (and Marcos translating) lead us through the assessment of the varieties they sell, sizes and qualities and the prices the growers will be paid for that 2015-2016 season. Then we were taken for a walk to a truffle reserve area nearby for some explanation of why the wild harvest is declining.
The Truffle Buyers – Laumont (Catalonia)
This is another of the videos recorded on the Barcelona Truffle Tour run by Micologia Forestal & Aplicada in Barcelona.
Jordi Serentill shared how they have assessed each of the 300 plus growers (or wild hunters) truffles and what they paid. (season 2014).
Translating – ‘Pago’ is Payout (in Euros). ‘Destrio’ means truffles that have not enough quality for pieces or peelings. Marcos translated it as a Catalan word that means “what’s left after selecting everything”. The red circle highlight on Supplier 4’s delivery shows the percentage of dirt included, and the other circle is a prime grower with 62% of the truffle in the premium range of 15 grams plus. The columns from Sencera +15 right, are Euro amounts that were paid to that supplier for the different qualities.
The growers/hunter get a copy of their spreadsheet and payment with their following week collection.
See the story Are you ready to sell your truffle for $200 a kilo? in the Truffle Tour report online here.
World Supply and demand – Marcos Morcillo
Maybe you’ve worked out where you will sell all your truffles (or when you get them) in Australia. Have you thought what the demand will be in, say 2020? Most of our successful growers realise that our local market is not going to be big enough and are looking for overseas sales to make their truffières viable. In this video Marcos Morcillo and his company Micologia Forestal and Applicada have, and he presented his latest assessment of the future at the Barcelona Truffle Tour in January we attended this year. Here is another ‘back of the room’ video notes from the lectures (see his ‘Paradigm shifts in truffle growing’ lecture video here). The Australians contributed actively to this discussion.
This chart is from “Truffle Farming Today, a Comprehensive World Guide” Marcos Morcillo, Monica Sanchez and Xavier Vilanova. Marcos talks about it in the video above.
Fred Harden.
Paradigm shifts in truffle growing – Marcos Morcillo
Marcos has generously agreed to share these with Australian growers you should find Marcos’ summary here of what changes we will need to consider based on their research, upsetting. Disruptive is the approved word.Read More
Truffle Growing – the first principles (Marcos Morcillo)
Here Marcos presents successful examples of truffle growing in Catalonia and Spain, and refers to the research that is taking place at the Catalan government Research Institute of Agronomic Technology – IRTA .
The video runs for just over an hour and is recommended viewing for all growers. There is some ‘translation’ required for seasons in our hemisphere, and the fact that there is natural limestone soil in Spain. The huge plantations that were started with EU funding are also very different to many of our growers here so there are some differences in scale when considering costs.
You’ll need to watch in as high quality as your connection will allow to see the details on the graphics.
The importance of the slide below will become painfully clear as you listen to the explanation of why your trees may have a good brulè and never grow truffles (unless you do something about it soon).
Fred Harden
Truffle Growers – Peréz (Spain)
We were taken to visit two very successful growers in Teruel in Spain. There is some reinforcement of concepts that are presented in the lecture videos but I felt it was of wider interest to all growers and prospective growers so Marcos has allowed us to include the video here.Read More