Truffle Cultivation & Growers' Seminar
We are delighted to announce that on Friday 13th November 2026, Mycorrhizal Systems will be partnering with Daylesford Organic to host an exclusive Introduction to Truffle Cultivation & Growers' Seminar, led by Paul Thomas
There couldn't be a more fitting setting. Daylesford Organic has become synonymous with exceptional food, regenerative farming and environmental stewardship.
Set amongst the beautiful Cotswold countryside, this seminar has been designed for both existing truffle growers looking to maximise orchard performance and those considering diversifying into one of the world's most exciting high-value crops.
✨ During the day you'll experience:
🔬 Live truffle root analysis using professional dissecting microscopes, projected onto the big screen.
🍄 A fascinating introduction to mycorrhizal fungi, truffle biology and fresh truffle spores.
🌱 Practical guidance on establishing, managing and optimising a productive truffle orchard.
🐕 Advice on truffle hunting and working with trained truffle dogs.
🌳 An exclusive guided tour of an established truffle orchard - a rare opportunity to see a truffle orchard firsthand while discussing tree hosts, truffle species, orchard design, planting densities and long-term management.
With more than 20 years of experience and hundreds of successful orchards established across the UK and internationally, we'll be sharing the science, practical knowledge and real-world insights that have helped growers produce truffles successfully.
Whether you're a farmer, landowner, forester, estate manager, food producer or simply fascinated by the incredible world of truffles, this promises to be an inspiring, hands-on day in one of Britain's most beautiful organic farming destinations.
✨ Places are limited. Book your ticket now via the Daylesford Organic website
Our first trial site has been planted - Mycoforestry in action.
Our first bay bolete trees left the lab in March 2025, an exciting milestone for our mycoforestry work.
The bay bolete (Imleria badia) is a superb edible mushroom, which we are co-cultivating with Scots pine. This marks the world’s first field trials of its kind: our unique strain is already forming baby mushrooms in the lab, giving us strong confidence in its performance in the field.
We are currently supplying trees inoculated with a range of mushroom species to different locations across the UK.
In early December 2025, we travelled to England, where Professor Paul Thomas was working alongside Ruairi Hafferty Hay on his first PhD fieldwork. Slightly challenging in a storm, we collected numerous samples to support the monitoring of our newly out-planted mycoforestry trees.
Here is a link to some more details on our project. Get in touch if you are interested in starting your very own food forrest.
Scotland's warming climate "ideal" for valuable truffle harvest
For those interested in our recent truffle developments in Scotland, here are a few additional details from the site.
The soil initially had a low pH of around 5, whereas truffles typically prefer conditions above pH 7. The planting is very small-scale, just a few trees at home, and only a narrow strip of soil, approximately 40 cm wide, had been limed at the outset. Additional lime was later applied to the surface.
Over time, burn marks began to appear, a classic sign of truffle fungus suppressing grass growth. The first truffles were spotted by eye, while later discoveries were made with the help of my dog, Rue.
Although the site is tiny, with only a handful of trees, it provides a valuable early indication of the potential for truffle cultivation on our islands. The trees are hazel, just five years old, produced in our lab, and treated with experimental microbial additives (Microbes+).
We also have a larger orchard adjacent to our lab on the island, although it is still very young at just two years old. On a personal note, I’m absolutely delighted to have a new monitoring site so close to home — quite literally just outside my kitchen back door.
The full BBC news item can be found here