Farm of the Week: Valuable strain of fungus is a growth industry

Paul Thomas, now 29, got interested in the truffle – a fragrant fungus prized by chefs for thousands of years – when he was doing a PhD in plant science at Sheffield University and put some overtime into experiments in impregnating the roots of seedlings with truffle fungus, so that truffle-producing trees might be grown instead of found.

"England used to export truffles," he says. "Queen Victoria was traditionally presented with the largest finds from Wiltshire, Somerset and Herefordshire. But we lost old forests and our last full-time truffle hunter gave up in the 1930s.

"Now we know truffles will grow much more northerly than used to be realised. And we have seen the French replace their lost capacity by planting 400,000 new truffle trees a year. I didn't see why we shouldn't do the same and I thought I could make the impregnation process more reliable and robust."

By the time he became Dr Thomas, in 2004, he was getting the trick right consistently and a business-seeding collaboration between the universities of Sheffield, Leeds and York, gave him 2,500 to pursue the possibilities.

"The vote of confidence meant more than the money," he says now. He set up his company, Mycorrhizal Systems – now trading as Plantation Systems because nobody could spell Mycorrhizal – and in January 2005 he applied to BBC2's Dragons' Den for 75,000 to start his first wood.

Simon Woodroffe, founder of restaurant chain YO! Sushi, said he would come up with the money in exchange for 25 per cent. But Paul never took up the offer. He had a better idea ... which brings us to Selby, five years on.

A farmer here is watching over 1,800 truffled-up oak and hazel saplings spread over three acres (1.2h). They will have been in the ground three years this April and were supplied at 12 months old by Plantation Systems, which has a nursery and laboratory near Macclesfield, Cheshire, turning acorns and nuts into potted seedlings with the truffle fungus waiting in their roots.

Paul employs two people there and two more at his office and mail-order centre in Hope Valley, south of Sheffield. He tries to keep addresses vague, because rustlers could be a problem.

And the Selby farmer asks for anonymity on the same basis.

Gardeners are paying 28 each for truffle treelets by post from plantationsystems.com. For bigger orders, the price goes down to 14. And it is cheaper still with a partnership deal such as the Selby farmer has done.

He supplied the ground, Paul supplied the plants and they will split the profits.

On this basis, 15 plantations have been established in England, Wales and Scotland, and more around the world.

Paul is also seeking out new truffle sites and experimenting with injecting the fungus into mature trees. He collects data from all this and passes on advice to the growers. One clear necessity is acidity in the soil – measured by a pH level of at least 7, although one site was started with 4.9.

The pH interferes with take-up of trace elements so iron, boron and magnesium, may also need to be boosted.

One way and another, with average soil preparation, tree guards, mulch mats to keep the weeds down, and seedlings at a negotiated price, his ballpark figure is 8,200 a hectare to plant for truffles – labour and fencing not included.

But subsidies upwards of 1,800 a hectare are available from the Forestry Commission for native trees.

His Selby partner says: "We didn't get any grants because we got the trees in the ground before we were aware of them. We planted the first 900 in a day by calling in the whole family. Since we finished the planting, input has been minimal.

"I spray with glyphosate once a year to keep the competition from grass down. Other than that, it's walking the dog and keeping an eye open. The tree guards seem to have done their job as far as hares and rabbits are concerned. So far, we haven't had a deer problem. If we did, we would have to think about some investment in fencing.

"Another thing we will be thinking about is what else we might do with the hazel – either coppicing the trees or harvesting the nuts."

His was the first plantation using the Sheffield-made system and it is just possible it will start to bear fruit this year.

He might take his young labrador on a training day for truffle sniffers, organised by Paul through a Hampshire dog trainer.

"You don't want to dig until you know you have a ripe one ready," says Paul. "So a dog is still useful and most dogs can learn to find truffles for reward. Pigs are a different matter. They are after the truffles and people have lost fingers trying to beat them to it."

Based on French experience, he expects cropping to start in years four to seven and production to rise to 60-240 kgs a hectare over the following five years.

It is a symbiotic relationship – the fungus takes some sugars but extends the tree's reach for nutrients and water – and the trees should have a full natural life.

The English Summer Truffle is worth an average of 280 a kilo wholesale over the season – prices vary with supply, because a fresh truffle starts to go off after two weeks. The Black Winter Truffle, which he is planting abroad where possible, is three times as valuable.

Asda has tried something similar, but on nothing like the same scale. It planted 200 truffle saplings – oak and beech – near Knottingley, West Yorkshire, in 2007.

Paul says: "We went with hazel and oak because there is most data on them. But we are also trying beech, birch and willow."

For more information, call 01433 659167, email [email protected] or see www.plantationsystems.com/