Rationalization of nursery and field production of Marche truffles
1) To innovate nursery production protocols in order to maximize truffle-host plantandmycorrhizationquality;
2) To adopt precision farming tools and principles in setting orchard irrigation and nutrition;
3) To use strategies to prolong orchard half-life by rationally managing canopy and microorganisms/soil/root interactions;
4) To monitor the effect off innovative techniques on root mycorrhization and the mating types of Tuber melanosporum;
5) To promote mycorrhization by artificial inoculation of bacteria;
6) To improve truffle use bylyophilization (freeze-drying).
The project aims to produce and plant symbiotic plants that can ensure rapid soil colonization by the root system. In productive truffle grounds and in grounds that are at the end of the production different cultivation techniques will be evaluated: precision irrigation, monitored by the innovating sensors system, and soil cultivation using technologically advanced tools. Restoration of unproductive truffle grounds will be tested introducing bacterial mix. Finally innovating technologies for tuber conservation will be tested, based on lyophilisation.
Truffle production, widely diffused in mountain marche region, represent the core of a food chain with a decennial work for local production valorisation. Truffle growing plays a central role in marginal regions agroeconomy, but recently registered difficulties. Growing temperatures and erratic rainfall caused a crisis of truffle production, based on complex agroecological balances. Moreover, due to market diversification and extension to national and international markets, truffle production is facing a new challenge concerning the best conservation techniques.
Partial Root zone Drying (PRD). Partial Root Drying reduces irrigation volumes without indurrestressin multiple crops. The development of mycelium in truffle culture has been shown to be favored by periodic reduced water availability and the PRD can induce periods of water stress in the mycelium without damaging the plant and without forcing it to explore the soil deeply. Doses and application times must be calibrated to the context.
Techniques and means of precision agriculture functional to the dynamic management of the truffle root interaction and to the improvement of the efficiency of use of the water resource and the reduction of the environmental impact will be introduced with a context calibration.
The use of bacterial mixtures positively influences mycorrhization both in vitro and in the field.
The lyophilization of truffles is a validated technology in other areas and allows the availability of product with characteristics similar to the fresh one for prolonged times.
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