Soil Characteristics of Tuber melanosporum Habitat

Tuber melanosporum belongs to the genus Tuber that only includes mycorrhizal fungi living and fruiting underground within the soil environment. T. melanosporum prefers sites in ridges or slopes, where water does not accumulate, and fractured parent materials where water can drain well. Rocky soils with crumb or subangular blocky structure, whose aggregates are stable to fast water immersion, are preferable for truffle cultivation, mostly when their texture is balanced and their clay content moderate. Tuber fungi thrive in alkaline soils with their exchange complex saturated by calcium or magnesium and high in well-mineralised organic matter. These soil conditions are all common in the landscape, but they seldom occur all at the same site. This is what makes natural truffle habitat scarce and disperse. Yet several of these soil characteristics can be modified and many farmlands can become excellent truffle orchards with the adequate soil management practices. These include liming, tilling or adding rock fragments and well-decomposed organic matter in soil.