How is Our Truffle Demonstration/Research Orchard Doing?

With the support of Franklin and Betty Garland of Garland Truffles in Hillsborough, NC, we established a small demonstration/research orchard at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, NC.  Here is a quick overview of what we did and how it looks.

In October 2009, we started preparing the soil; opening up the beds where we planned to plant our trees.

We overwintered the inoculated filbert trees in an unheated greenhouse.

In mid-March 2010, we applied fertilizer and lime, tilled it into the beds and laid landscape fabric over the beds (actually, silt fencing).

We planted the trees on April 15.

Drip-tape was laid on top of the landscape fabric.

This is what the orchard looked like in late June.

This is what it looked like in mid-August.

And this is how it looked in late fall.

In spring, we will inspect the trees for insects and diseases and apply more lime to the soil.