[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi Todd, we do a first and second clean followed by trim and grading. First clean is a hose with a nail brush to remove as much dirt and mud as possible. We do this outside. Second is with a denture brush and running water. We also use dental picks to check any pock marks or crevice’s we can see into to remove dirt and check for soundness. This is done inside where we have a magnifying glass to really check spots. You want running water and not a bucket as you want to wash any contaminants away. We cut any truffle with crevice’s we can’t see into as you don’t want to send out a truffle with mud or worse a worm to a chef. We don’t recommend using an ultrasonic unit as these take more time and haven’t proved on scale to be beneficial. We then fan dry them before storing in a fridge 34f with paper towel. We ship same or next day max, overnight delivery. Normal packaging is with paper towel to absorb excess moisture in a bag inside a foil foam cold pack with an ice block. Important that the block not touch the truffle to avoid freezing. People do vac pack however if you create an anoxic environment and the package gets above 40f you run the potential of botulism. We want to get it to the chef within 48 hours if possible as we loose a % of VOC’s every day and as you have discovered, fresh out of the ground is completely different from imported. Linnet will be at the conference and you can bug her with details if you like. We’re also running a growers workshop in Oregon in December where we will cover this extensively on day two. Feel free to reach out to me.

 

[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi Fabrice, we have been battling them for years. I do a 12′ min bare area around the orchard to make a predator friendly environment. We also keep the grass very short the other side of that bare area using a flail. This also helps with slugs. It seems if you get on top of them in spring you have a much better time of it.

 

[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi Gretchen. This got brought up at the OTF in I think it was 2011 or 2012. The Australians were using Basta (US version is Rely) at the time as it doesn’t seem to have the impact that Roundup does and it has shown great success. We’ve followed suit at our place. Registered in Oregon at least for Filberts and vines for sucker control.

[Simon Cartwright]

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We’re on a 20’x 10′ for a combo of 2 to 1 filbert to oak. This puts the oak at 30′ for eventual mature canopies. Australians seem to prefer a 6x8m spacing. Hope that helps.

[Simon Cartwright]

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We haven’t lost a tree in about 5 years since we got really serious about them. We did a subsoil experiment on a row back in 2014 which created a gopher super highway right into our orchard. It took me about 18 months of trapping to get that back under control (removed 3-5 gophers a week during this time in just 50 trees). I now know their entry points into the orchard and hammer any burrowing critter the moment we see sign. They will effect production if you don’t control them as the root systems get damaged by their activity. We also see moles and voles which we also try and control as the moles make good runways for the voles (which eat truffle) as well as openings for ground wasps (Not fun when you run over one with the mower). We haven’t had ground squirrel yet but have lost a few truffle to red squirrels scratching them. As we have native truffle in PNW we have to take a control position. We will never eliminate them so the best we can do is make it as unfriendly as possible and be diligent in our control strategy. I know some have had success by hiring a professional crew to come and set hundreds of traps just to get the population back under control. We know with out soils that we do have to do some from of aeration on a regular basis so we are currently trialing a power tiller to only shallow till. We are hoping this will give us the results we are after without giving the critters a new path in. I did at one point think of digging a fence similar to a rabbit proof one into the field (2′ deep 1/4″ S/S mesh) but abandoned the idea based on cost and no numbers to base an ROI on. Have you talked to your local university extension service about control in local conditions?

[Simon Cartwright]

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My original post. 2020 prune. Show us your pruning skills from this year.

[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi Michael, I’m assuming your a grower and not looking to import. We have been producing now in Oregon for about 5 years with this year being the first that we have been able to pull a consistent weekly amount. Unfortunately in our area COVID restrictions have killed off the market as chefs don’t want to hold anything in their walk ins for more than a day or two as they could be shut down at a moments notice. I agree with all of the comments above. We have found that building the relationship with owner chefs who value local and can flex their menu to include a super special has been our #1 success. They see us as investing in them with fresh high quality (please take to heart the grading Olivier showed on the webinar as we have found the Australian grading is by far the best)  and so they invest in us. We have also been involved in the local foodies scene and have been relying on selling to individuals locally to help us move some truff. Having a great web page and active on social media also helps as a story goes a long way.

[Simon Cartwright]

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I would suggest not topping them, You need the biomass especially in the first 3-5 years to encourage root growth for the fungus. You may have to train leaders and do some thinning of crossing branches, but that would be it from my experience. Later down the track depending on what method you are following you can choose to do some radical pruning, but at this stage probably not.  If you go to our FB page (facebook.com/cartwrighttruffles) there are pictures and some video (if you scroll around) of our pruning over the years. We’re currently raising the canopy for machinery, but that’s it. I would also suggest checking out Australian Truffle Traders and Australian Truffle and Wines FB pages as they put video up as well on their orchards. You can see what they are doing 20+ years out.

[Simon Cartwright]

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We’re using the Nelson R-5 heads. For our conditions I found they gave better coverage than the Netafims. We are water restricted to a 30gpm pump at 40PSI so that was part of our consideration. Been running them for over 9 years and change about 10% per year either through wear and tear or dogs breaking them during harvest.

[Simon Cartwright]

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We don’t do any cover crops as we are following an Australian methodology. If you have a cover crop you are going to have to provide additional irrigation for it (It will also compete for root zones against the trees feeder roots). Secondly we are growing truffle and having to dig through a cover crop is time consuming.

[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi All,

My few additional thoughts for consideration.

Fabrice is correct, we are trying to grow truffle. However in order to do so, you’re trying to grow a tree with a dependence on a mycorrhizae, why are you introducing grass with competitors for the bound nutrients? This weakens the relationship.

If you are using a replenishing fertilizer such as truffle boost or Seasol for trace nutrients, you don’t always get a burn around the trees to control the grass as these are not getting depleated. We have a bunch of producing trees that we have to do grass control around. We have very few actual trees showing a burn and those are not our big producers.

Have you ever tried to dig truffle out of a grass root situation, yet alone 20+ in a morning?

I understand wanting a cover crop for the first few years, but by year 5 or 6 they are going to be a problem. It takes 3 years + to control the weeds / grass once you let it go to seed. We strip sprayed 3′ from the trees extending it to year 10 where you don’t need any cover.

Slugs – Why give them a home? The number one reason folk don’t have truffle is slugs and any cover crop doesn’t help the situation. Ask a grass seed grower in Oregon how much sluggo they go through in a year:).

 

 

 

 

[Simon Cartwright]

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Hi Stephanie, Hoping your getting moss development now you have irrigation which will help with the erosion and negate the need for grass.

My last thoughts on the subject as I am trying to provide a balance regarding grass in orchards from a standard management position.

I understand that Fabrice is trying for a biodiverse orchard (thanks for clarifying Fabrice. I think it’s important that folk understand the methodology behind the comments) I hope it works for him and I’ll be interested to see the journey that they are on because I really really want to see them succeed. However I don’t think introducing a ground cover without consideration that it will need to be reduced as the orchard ages has been recognized and should be taken into account in the discussion. If you disturb the soil (assuming Perigord) outside of March April you are hurting not helping.

Also, I know it is slightly off topic but everyone should download https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/new-horticulture-crops/australian-truffle-orchard-integrated-pest-and-disease-management

It highlights a lot of things we can expect (the North American version of) in our orchards. The majority of them love ground cover for breeding and protection.

I’ll leave it at that.

PS:  I just got back two days ago from visiting Manjimup and spending time on orchards with growers. If you don’t know they are extremely successful typically produce 1-2lbs of truffle per tree. Not one orchard had grass and they were pulling every truffle even though it was out of season to try and break the beetle cycle. They do everything possible to ensure a mono-crop in the orchard while maintaining bio-diversity around the rest of the property.

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