Mast year and truffle production

[Fabrice Caporal]

Apparently this year is a Mast year. In our orchard we definitely have experienced a big bumper crop of acorns.

 

I was wondering if anyone had found literature on the impact of Mast year on truffle production. I assume it would negatively impact production as so much resources were pushed on to the acorns. What do you think?

[Dietrich Epp Schmidt]

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This paper supports that hypothesis. Doesn’t really address truffle production or oaks, but clearly documents that effect in beech and associated fungi over multiple decades.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.14460

[Fabrice Caporal]

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Thank you very much. This is interesting reading.

[Todd Maveus]

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Thank you, Fabrice.We definitely saw the increase in acorns and decrease in Hazelnuts this year in our orchard. Last year was our first Perigord harvest and we trenched and reinnoculated in the spring. We were sure hoping for an increase in Truffle production this year. Looks like that may be an uphill battle.

[Fabrice Caporal]

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Congratulations on your first truffle.  Was it on an oak?

It feels that this year has been a first truffle year… is this a coincidence?

[Dietrich Epp Schmidt]

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If we got a few orchards to track both nut and truffle we could get a pretty good estimate for the relationship between nut production and truffle production for different species combos. Might even be able to start using nut crop as a leading indicator in a more formal way.

[Fabrice Caporal]

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We for sure are going to empirically track this in our orchard.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by Fabrice Caporal.

[Todd Maveus]

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Our truffles have only been on Hazelnuts so far but they are just now 8 years along.

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