Browsing by Subject "produktion"

The black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is an inscrutable mushroom. It is widely believed that the physico-chemical properties of a soil are of great importance for it. Its cultivation in the Auvergne region in France is fraught with impediments. Gérard Chevalier (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) postulates that soils with higher than 40% clay content would be inauspicious, unless moderated by a compensating effect from increased rock fragments content. The work undertaken should substantiate this hypothesis, and furthermore take inventory of the mycorrhizal status of the 25 truffle orchards, some of which are thirty years old. The results show that 50% of the plantations still house Tuber melanosporum mycorrhizae. Statistical analysis of the collected information vis-à-vis soil analyses and interpretations of soil profiles in relation to production, shows that a high clay content diminishes the chances of success. The results attained are not sufficient to assert the compensatory effect of soil stoniness. This study moreover highlights the significant roles of total carbonate, active carbonate, phosphorus and potassium contents. These results should be considered with caution, since the small size sample consists of “instances” with heterogeneous characteristics, and the soil analysis methodology does not take into account various environmental factors, whose impact could well be significant (for example light conditions in the orchards). Despite these limitations, this study conveys a dual adage, both scientific and technical. For researchers, it brings some additional insights. For those who wish to produce Tuber melanosporum, it confirms an existing potential in Auvergne. By and large, it illuminates the murky manifest countenance of the black truffle.