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Tuber oregonense

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Pezizomycetes
Order:	Pezizales
Family:	Tuberaceae
Genus:	Tuber
Species:	T. oregonense
Binomial name
*Tuber oregonense*

Tuber oregonense, commonly known as the Oregon white truffle, is a species of edible truffle in the genus Tuber. Described as new to science in 2010, the North American species is found on the western coast of the United States, from northern California to southern British Columbia west of the Cascade Range. A mycorrhizal fungus, it grows a symbiotic association with Douglas fir. It overlaps in distribution with the closely related T. gibbosum, but they have different growing seasons: T. oregonense typically appears from October through March, while T. gibbosum grows from January to June. The fruit bodies of the fungus are roughly spherical to irregular in shape, and resemble small potatoes up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter. Inside the truffle is the gleba, which is initially white before it becomes a marbled tan color. The large, often thick-walled, and strongly ornamented spores are produced in large spherical asci. The truffle is highly prized for its taste and aroma. Some individuals have claimed success in cultivating the truffles in Christmas tree farms.

"The goal of the Helsinki University of Technology and Juva Truffle Center is to develop a truffle cultivation technique and work toward minimising cultivation costs. The planting of truffle mycelium has also been tried on the roots of pine, fir and birch trees. The natural occurrence of truffles ensures that the fungi will grow on pine roots.
Questions concerning the possibility of cultivating truffles have ranged from information on commercial cultivation to the best recipes.

The idea to try cultivating truffles got its start in the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) Faculty of Chemical and Materials Sciences Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory. Publicity garnered by the research has increased the number of citizen contacts, and the discovery of truffles indigenous to Finland has reinforced the idea of successfully cultivating them.

This year, three years after the research began, researcher Dr Salem Shamekh can breathe a satisfied sigh of relief, even if this is his fourth summer without a summer holiday. As a scientist he felt a great deal of pressure to succeed when he began his research in truffles. Hardly anyone believed that there were any truffles in Finland, much less that they could ever be cultivated here. As is often the case, there was initially a lot of doubt and little money. Shamekh, however, has nothing but praise for his department’s outstanding, conducive research environment, which made the experiment possible.

Sceptical questions on whether truffles could be cultivated have changed to questions concerning the start-up costs of a truffle orchard, the commercialisation of research and the best truffle dishes. Shamekh believes that the demand for truffles would be sufficient even in their country of origin. Interest in truffles would definitely reshape our culinary traditions and habits. "

Truffle Cultivation
Truffle consumption has been part of French culture since the middle ages. The folklore of their formation had been attributed to claps of thunder and to theories not far from the realm of fairy tales. This contributed to a limited scientific knowledge on truffle formation until recent times. In fact, harvests from natural forests had provided the bulk of production in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Production estimates of 2,000 tonnes per annum have been made. For this reason, there was limited opportunity for peasants who were content with the natural harvest of the truffles to understand about production of truffles. The two World Wars destroyed much of the collecting grounds and vegetation supporting truffles. This resulted in the collapse of the truffle industry in the 1930’s. Now typically between 50 and 100 tonnes are harvested each year. In 1984, because of the extremely dry summer, only 10 tonnes were produced. The decline in truffle production has continued in the twenty-first century. The reported harvest in France in 2006/07 was around 13 tonnes.

In the past two decades, knowledge in the cultivation of the black truffle has resulted in the establishment of artificial trufferies throughout France and countries in the Mediterranean. The first artificial trufferie was established in south western France with transplanted oak seedlings raised from the base of trees where truffles had been collected in the past. However, this hit miss system has now been largely replaced by raising raising infected seedlings in controlled conditions in glasshouses. Understanding the factors leading to the successful production of truffles under hazel and oak trees has been a focus of research which led to the successful establishment of trufferies in countries other than France.

In the northern hemisphere including France and Italy many of the newly established trufferies have been invaded by other naturally occurring truffle species (there are over 70 different species found in Europe). In the southern Hemisphere there are no commercial truffle species found naturally. Consequently, monocultures of selected truffles species can be established.

In 1991, the first black truffles were produced outside Europe when oak trees inoculated with truffle spores produced their first crop in Oregon, USA. A 70 hectare trufferie was established in Texas in 1991. In 1984 the Crop and Food Research Organisation in New Zealand commenced work to establish artificial trufferies. The winter of 1993 saw the first production of commercial truffles in New Zealand confirming the feasibility of producing them in the southern Hemisphere. This was followed by the establishment of a number of small trufferies in Tasmania in 1994. The first black truffle grown in Australia was dug up in June 1999. It weighed 125gms. Since this time actual production from Tasmania is not accurately known. Market intelligence suggests production quantities have increased spasmodically.

The idea is to take your spawn and use it to inoculate a much larger amount of bulk substrate outdoor.

** Since I cannot control the methods by which this spawn is used, no promises or claims about yields are made (there are simply too many factors)