[Todd Maveus]

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Hi Cedric,

We are not the experts, but just wanted to share that we had similar concerns about our oak trees having leaf browning when they were about 4 years old.  We had taken a pruning class through our local agricultural extension office and reached out to them.  They put us in touch with the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at North Carolina State University.  We initially sent them photos, but they also requested a physical sample, which we sent in.  For $20, we got a report back from them in about a month’s time (late August to early October) that helped us better understand the impact of disease and insects on our tree health and helped to ease our concerns, so we highly recommend engaging with your local extension agent.

Sample of the results we received:

Three diseases were found on the submitted branches/foliage, and were present on all three subsamples. The dark spots, often along veins, are Tubakia leaf spot. This is common on oak. The spots often enlarge late in the year as the leaves begin to senesce. The yellow blotches with white patches (esp. on the underside) are powdery mildew. Neither the powdery mildew nor the Tubakia leaf spot represent a significant threat to the health of the trees. The third disease is thread blight, caused by the fungus Ceratobasidium ochroleucum, formerly known as Corticium stevensii. This is causing death of groups of leaves, starting at the leaf bases. It is not killing the cambium, but could cause extensive leaf damage under wet conditions.

We do also experience yellowing leaves on our hazelnut trees (attaching a picture in case a comparison is helpful), but not quite to the degree that your picture shows.

We do spray our leaves with Sevin as needed for insects and our oak trees with milk for mildewing as needed but have not yet tried any anti-fungal products or nutritional additives other than planting clover for a few seasons to improve our soil’s nitrogen.  We leave the heavy pruning for late fall/winter season, but we do spot prune unhealthy branches as we encounter them, and we have had to remove some unhealthy trees here and there. Our orchard is about 8 years old now and we did get our first small winter truffle harvest this past February!  We wish you the best and hope that you find the solutions that you need.

Blessings,

Missy and Todd

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[Todd Maveus]

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Thank you, Fabrice!  That definitely helps us with planning for the testing portion.

Is there anyone out there already cleaning and shipping truffles that would be willing to share lessons learned or make recommendations or point to good resources for finding options?

We are looking for simple answers on things like:

• brushing or not brushing the skin
• cleaning solution vs. clear water
• including something in the packaging with the truffle to absorb moisture.
• where and in what to store the truffle until delivery (clean or dirty?)
• target time frame for delivery seems to be same or next day?  How long can it keep and still be considered a fresh truffle?  7 days?

 

[Todd Maveus]

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Thank you again for the information and for letting us know about the Cartwrights.  We made it to the congress in Roanoke, VA, but were not able to attend last year.  Do you happen to know if those sessions were recorded?

[Todd Maveus]

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@Simon-Cartwright, thank you for the detailed response and excellent information.  It is will be most helpful for us. We aren’t sure yet if we can make this year’s Congress, but are very appreciative of the support!

[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.

[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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