Growing truffles in Milwaukee, WI?

[Fabrice Caporal]

Stephanie is asking:

I’m interested in cultivating truffles in my backyard. This would be a hobby, not a full fledged farm. I live in Milwaukee, WI. Our frost line does go down 12-18 in during the winter. I understand these freezing temperatures can damage truffles. Would the Burgundy truffle be able to grow?….based on the map it sounds like this truffle can grow in most areas across North America. Please advise me if this is an endeavor I could take up!

Thank you,
Stephanie

[Robin Kable]

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Hi Stephanie,

I am a truffle grower in Maryland where we have hard frosts sometimes in October. We occasionally have serious ground freeze down to a few inches in November.

I grow both Tuber aestivum (four years) and Tuber canaliculatum (two years) but have not yet produced any truffles. Both of these truffle species should be appropriate where there is significant winter ground freeze as their harvest seasons end by November.

I harvest Tuber canaliculatum in the wild also. It grows in the mountains in places with very serious winters and it is a very aggressive truffle in terms of colonizing tree roots and competing with other fungi. You won’t find much information about it but we are trying to change that. There are some orchards around here that have had the native T. canaliculatum grow accidentally in their truffle orchards. The going price for this truffle is around $6-800/lb but there is one person who will pay ~$1,300. So it is certainly a valuable truffle in the very small community of people who even know what it is.

Tuber aestivum has a very broad native range in Europe implying that it should be able to grow almost anywhere. That said, there are very few orchards that have actually produced this species of truffles in America, and none at any real volume. This might be because it needs cooler soil temperatures caused by full canopy formation (older, larger trees with longer time requirements to reach this point) but it isn’t clear.

The root samples in both of my orchards (both species of truffle) look good in terms of demonstrating healthy truffle fungus on the roots. One thing I can say is that the long waiting period to produce truffles does not appear to be the case for the native Tuber canaliculatum. My friend who produces the trees planted his own orchard (essentially the only other orchard in North America) and he has been producing truffles out of it for a number of years (without having large mature trees and canopy closure). So it is an N of 1 success with pretty early truffle production. The common name for the species is the Appalachian truffle.

Let me know if you have any questions. My Instagram is Wakefield Truffles if you want to see some photos of the Appalachians.

Regards

Ben Kable

[Fabrice Caporal]

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I can’t claim to be a truffle expert but that said, my understanding is that the burgundy truffles can handle frost as they are harvested during the late summer months.

There are also the native Appalachian Truffles that are prized but are not yet well known that can grow up north.

Good luck,

Fabrice

[Kathleen Sedehi]

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I met two brothers at the OTF in 2020 who had planted 100 trees, also as a hobby, in Fort Atkinson, WI.  They might be fun for you to connect with.  I’m sure they won’t mind receiving an email from you.  Philip Jones [email address removed by admin – not meeting forum policy] (I am checking with them to see if I can share their contact information).  Very nice brothers.  It might have been OTF 2019….

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