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mimzy

Market research - T. melanosporum innoculated seedlings

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Hi Corroborree folk.

I'm about 6 months away from being able to offer Hazelnut and Oak seedlings inoculated with T. melanosporum (Black French Truffle). I want to get some questions answered from a consumer point of view if you would help me out.

(1) Would you be purchasing seedlings as a commercial enterprise (i.e to plant out in an orchard), or as a one-off plant for your back yard?

(2) How mature would you like the seedling to be? They are fine to go into the ground after being hardened off (about 6 months old), but I could offer more mature plants as well.

(3) What proof of inoculation would you consider sufficient? My seedlings are inoculated from a pure culture of T. melanosporum under tissue culture conditions in a laboratory setting.That said, I can offer microscopy of the roots prior to shipping (free) and rRNA PCR testing at an additional cost.

(4) Would you pay $30 per seedling?

(5) Would you prefer Oak (ultimately higher truffle yield, but slower to produce) or Hazelnut seedlings (higher truffle yield to begin with, but ultimately lower yield)?

Any other comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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i'd be buying both for sure. take a punt and plant a few rows of each. If the seedlings had space in your winery amongst some of the back rows -that would be an added value point to the tours that would eventuate in the future. Considering the amount some spend on wasted ventures, $30 per a seeding surely isn't that prohibitive to an enterprising rory calhoun? Or is it - perhaps a truffle grower will chime in here?

So you are selling certified(paid for testing) truffle.?

I'd be asking how much times you have you replicated the standard and what yields you have collated as an average over a few years - that way i could? minimize/maximise my outlay costs.

To be frank, anyone with some spare coin would love this in the backyard if they own the land and have some spare space. Imagine that, your own truffle but from your point of view - it isn't really that profitable to send to 5 backyarders -who will invariably- just keep asking dumb questions.

Is it black or white?

People want provenance i'd expect.

I'd foresee the most asked question will be "Yeah but....will it grow where i'm dreaming off or live in, alternatively. So if you can provide data that shows you've done the homework on locale and needs, you will immediately get atleast, a few interested parties. Olive and wine farms would love your presentation if you could show them your inoculated seedlings would actually thrive in their environment. That's what you'd be focusyn in on, the farmers who have the money,climate and space to make it work for them.

Cheers Mimzy, i've always read your mycological research as interesting but well worded for the layman(like myself), so this venture out there to get others interested is really appealing to somebody who wants to incorporate locally grown gourmet ingredients in their cucina.

Chefs love locally grown,eco sourced, in season produce. So a prospective client will incorporate that into their price - whether it's a commercial venture or just some random person that just adores their truffles from the backyard.

Pricing,proof of standard and adaptability to a clients needs is what i'd be honing in on.

To be honest, i think truffles are way over rated and expensive so in effect you'd be bringing consumers minds more in line with reality.

many have tried.

i hope some peabody can provide you with more insight .

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Thanks Ethereal!

The mother culture from which all seedlings are inoculated will be DNA tested every quarter to ensure no contaminating fungi are present. Unfortunately its too expensive to test every seedling, unless at the customers expense. Certification is something I hadn't actually thought about, but my first thought was that it would add additional cost. I'm set up to do DNA testing (actually rRNA) in my lab, which would be far cheaper for clients. As far as I'm aware there is only one certification service in Australia (http://trufflegrowers.com.au/tree_certification/), and no protection is afforded to either grower or consumer despite having to fork out money for testing and tag.

At the moment I am only offering the French Perigord Truffle (T. melanosporum), however I intend to expand my culture bank to include the magnatum, aestivum, macrosporum and oregonese when I start deriving some income from the venture. At the moment its all been quite costly :/

Serious truffle growers are my end game market, but punters offer a good way to get into the marker. As far as I'm aware, I'm the only person in NSW currently doing this and with new markets opening up in Oberon, Bowral, the Hunter Valley, I'm confident we can start moving a few plants.

Very good idea to approach farms that could successfully grow the truffle, adding value to their land with minimal investment. I may have to bring a soil scientist/ climatologist on board to seek out new regions. Thanks for following my work!

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Mimzy, I've just sent a message to a contact I have at a wine agency, they look after a bunch of 5 star wineries all over the country. I'll see if any of them are interested in speaking to you. If you like, you can pm me and I can pass on your details so you can speak directly.

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Thanks Glaukus! Will definitely love to chat via pm.

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Great business venture Mimzy, best of luck with it.

Personally, I'd love to see chestnuts and Boletus edulis but that's just me. (Cantharellus cibarius would be fantastic too) Which species of Oak are you starting out with? Q. ilex?

I think if you could get magnatum happening you'd have a bit of a unique offering to the market.

As etherealdrifter talked about you might need to offer a whole lot of services including soil testing, trufferie design...well at least soil care, weed removal and irrigation. You might also want to warn people about how long the land needs to be free of trees prior to planting inoculated trees.

The $30 charge would need to reduce based on volumes ordered I feel.

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Eth hit the nail on the head for me, I'd love to buy 50-100 right off the bat (at a reduced price I'd hope), but I feel a "consultancy" type deal might also need to be arranged also. I'll be in touch mimzy this week sometime with my particular enquiry. Thanks mate

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I hope $30 will make these plants accessible to people who just want to dabble. Everything is easier to do in bulk, so a reduced price is on the cards for commercial type enterprises. I agree, people will want to know that their plants have the best chance of producing truffles, and a consultancy service would be helpful. At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting the product right, but it will all evolve together I'm sure.

Ahh the Boletus! Another great mushroom. I'm not aware of anyone with a culture, but I will look into isolating my own.

Thanks for all the comments.

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I'd buy at least a couple at that price, possibly more, dependent on climate requirements.

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I would most likely be interested in one or two of each. I may just check the climate requirements of where I intend to plant them too, of course.

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Indeed best of luck with this venture.

The group in the yarra ranges that have been innoculating and selling similar have run into some real issues with poor yields and other problems.

They hired a soil scientist thinking poor or different soil factors or microbes might be a player but now think that some mycorrhizal species may rely on other mycorrhizae inhabiting the same host tree to thrive. Basically a concert of symbiotic organisms rather than just a tree and one passenger.

No idea if this has been validated by science or if there are published papers supporting it.

Im with NSF on a major preference for Boletus edulis or chant innoculated trees ;)

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@ Zen Ped - For me it's about ease of proving and harvesting. The ever looming theory that B.e doesn't fruit until the host reaches sexual maturity is a little scary though.

I do have a dog who has great seek 'drive' so she could be trained to locate truffles...I suspect she'd eat them though.

@ Mimzy, as for boletus, we found some in SA this year but had real problems getting A. a clean culture and B. getting it to then take to the agar. We even used modified Melin Norkrans medium agar.

Are you inoculating the roots with an agar wedge or is a matter of watering with a solution? Or is that intellectual property that I'm asking about?

Edited by NSF
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@Zen - Yes I'm aware of that group, from what I understand they inoculate with fruit bodies under quasi-sterile conditions. With my method, I inoculate the seedling with mycelium under complete sterility. While I have not done the study, I suspect this method is superior in that the TM is allowed to colonise root tips in the absence of highly competitive endogenous ecto/end fungi. I haven't come across any research specific to T. melanosporum, but yes, the soil microbiome is immense, and it wouldn't surprise me if a third and fourth player (whether bacterial or fungal) are critical to fruit body formation. The lag time between planting an inoculated tree and harvesting truffles is a major issue. All I can guarantee is that a seedling is carrying the organism, the rest is up to nature and farmer.

@NSF - My experience with isolations from fruit bodies, is that if the specimen is collected very young, there only tends to be bacterial contamination (a persistent Pseudomonas) that can be cleared up on 100mg/ml ampicillin plates. If you find a specimen, send it to me and I will have a crack. I'm guessing the problem with Boletus edulis is that on a commercial level they don't see the same return $/g as TM.

Don't want to say anymore on my TM inncoulation techniques sorry!

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No apology necessary, you are entitled to the IP that you've created.

There's no doubt that market value is the driver for T.m, I just really love B.e in terms of aesthetic and food application.

Inoculating seedlings in complete sterility...wow!

Is the mycelium visible on the roots once it takes hold? Could you please share macro or microscope photos of it by any chance?

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Excellent. I think Ferret and a few others are playing with seedlings under sterile conditions although in those cases its for completely different applications. Really look forward to seeing how you go.

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I'd buy hazelnuts over oak just because even if the truffles didn't take off, I might still get some tasty hazelnuts.

Hardened seedlings of any age would be fine with me - are there advantages for the fungi to having an older tree? Price is fine btw, not too much more than you might pay for uninoculated plants at a nursery.

I'm going to add my vote for preferring Boletus though, mmm... Boletus.

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Interesting point NSF - imagine there are porcini innoculated trees around Vic jut waiting to reach a certain point of maturity or other point that initiates the fruiting. My dream...

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