Truffles don’t actually grow on the tree roots; they develop near inoculated roots. The tree is a carrier or facilitator for the hyphae in the soil, the spider’s web of spore development surrounding the roots of the trees around which truffles appear. It is within this web that truffles can develop.
Tim Terry leaves little to chance in his trufferie. In the inoculation process it is necessary to be clinical because, ‘the last thing you want is the wrong fungus to establish itself around the roots of a tree,’ he explains. Once another type of fungus has settled there, it is very difficult to introduce the truffle spores: this must be established early.
While Terry won’t divulge all his secrets, he does give a rough guide to the inoculation process. The first step in this process is to collect the acorns and hazelnuts and sterilise them. From there they are germinated in a sterile medium. Terry uses an outside contractor to sterilise his potting mix, so that there is a trackable audit trail. Diligence in the sterilisation process is crucial. The trees have to be grown in near hospital-like conditions.
Only after young oak and hazelnut trees have grown to at least 5 centimetres is the truffle spore introduced. At this point, the tree has sprouted just a couple of leaves and its root system is in early development.
The truffle spore is introduced to the roots of the sapling and the sapling returned to the enclosed nursery, where it will remain for the first year of its life. Once the tree has had this time to mature, an expert is brought in to verify the presence of the fungi around the roots of the tree. Only when the fungus has been identified will Terry plant the tree on his property.
Pierre Jean Pebeyre, France’s largest truffle wholesaler, has visited Terry’s property. The French visitor remarked on Australians’ impatience. ‘Pebeyre told me that the French don’t even look for truffles until the trees have been growing for ten years,’ recalls Terry, ‘but in Australia we found the first truffle after only four years of growing’.
Terry lives for the day when he can pull a truffle from beneath every tree. But for this to happen he must give it time. Some of Terry’s oldest trees stopped fruiting when they were interfered with during research, and are only just returning to fruit now. ‘I’ve had experts from France and other countries visit this farm and there’s nothing that says we can’t do this. ‘Nobody has told me I’m barking up the wrong tree here,’ so I am continuing to grow this business and hopefully a wonderful export industry for Tasmania.’