Poster presented at the I congress on Truffle farming in Spain-march 2013

1. Tuber borchii mycorhization depending on host tree and stage of inoculation
Morcillo, M1*.; Sánchez, M1.; Navarrete, N2.; Vilanova, X1
1
Micología Forestal & Aplicada
Address* Rbla. Arnau de Vilanova, 6 local D. Vilanova i la Geltrú, 08800 Barcelona SPAIN
E-mail* marcosmorcillo@micofora.com
URL* www.micofora.com
2
Address Pablo Burchard, 2563. Peñaloen. Santiago de Chile. CHILE.
E-mail* navarretenh@vtr.net
Abstract
Tuber borchii is an excellent edible truffle, also known as “bianchetto” or “marzuolo” in Italy and “blanquilla”
in Spain. Widely spread all over Europe, from UK to Italy, Spain and Portugal. In the markets can be usually
found mixed with other whitish truffles from the Puberulum section.
Due to its broad range of ecology and habitats, in this project several infection techniques to inoculate
different host trees to this truffle were studued, in order to cultivate it in all these potencial areas.
Seedlings of Pinus pinea, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus radiata, Quercus ilex, Quercus suber, Quercus striatula (a
native oak from México) and Coryllus avellana formed mycorrhizas with Tuber borchii at levels from 29% to
54%, seven months after the inoculation. All trees were outplanted to follow their performance in the field.
Tuber borchii has claimed to be an agressive truffle able to fast infect trees. On the other hand hazelnut
industry is growing fast in Chile, and hundreds of hazel orchards are being planted in the regions also
suitable for growing truffles. Most hazel seedlings come from layering in clump strangulation, with other
mycorhizas in the root system, mainly Scleroderma. An experiment with hazels was done in oder to evaluate
three different inoculation methods: a) nursery inoculation on seedlings coming from seeds; b) rootdip
inoculation of commercial seedlings at the outplanting time; c) direct inoculation in mature hazels in the
field. Results are a) all nursery inoculated hazels got mycorhizas with the inoculated truffle over 30% of
infection, b) 83% of hazels got T. borchii mycorhizas and c) 66% of hazels got T. borchii mycorhizas. Although
the levels of mycorhization on b) and c) were always lower than 10%.
At the same time different inoculations in mature forests (Pinus pinea, Quercus suber and Quercus rugosa)
have been carried out with this white truffle in Spain, Portugal and México.
KEYWORDS
Tuber borchii cultivation, infected truffle trees production, Mycoforest Technology®