Chapter 29: Chapter 29: The Secret of the Truffle
「January 25th.」
Perhaps because the New Year was approaching, the weather broke from the past few days of drizzly rain. Today, the sun was a rare and welcome sight.
Jiang Miao gathered all the out-of-town employees who were preparing to return home and took out a thick stack of red envelopes.
"Come on! Keep up the good work!"
He handed over a red envelope containing 888 yuan.
Zhang Xinyi quickly accepted it with both hands. "Thank you, Boss! Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!"
Soon, the twenty-some out-of-town employees had all received their 888-yuan New Year’s red envelopes. Then, pulling their suitcases, they boarded the company’s five pickup trucks to head to the high-speed rail station or the long-distance bus station.
Standing to the side, Lin Shuya watched as the company grew much quieter. She blew warm air into her cupped hands and rubbed her slightly red palms, asking with a smile, "You’ll be staying to watch over the company for the next few days, right?"
"Yeah, a member of management has to stay behind."
"Well, I don’t have much to do. The work of collecting samples from Dian Nan takes time. For truffles, we’ve currently obtained about 5 kilograms of samples. As for termite mushrooms and matsutake, they won’t be available until July or August."
Jiang Miao crouched down and petted Da Huang, the dog he had brought from his hometown. It was this very dog that had found him when he was struck unconscious by lightning. He ruffled the dog’s head and fed it a piece of eel meat.
"How’s the truffle research coming along?"
Lin Shuya gave him a rundown. "Currently, many places are researching cultivation techniques for both black and White Truffles. Among them, the Pan City Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute completed a cultivation technique that simulates a wild environment back in ’23."
"The yield must be pretty embarrassing, right?"
"You’re right." Lin Shuya replied, squatting down to watch Da Huang eat the eel meat.
The reason Jiang Miao guessed the White Truffle yield was embarrassing was because the market price reflected the actual production situation.
If the Pan City Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute could achieve mass production of White Truffles, their market price would definitely drop.
But Jiang Miao knew from the purchasing department’s reports that the price of White Truffles had remained between 400 and 1,000 yuan per kilogram over the past few years, averaging around 580 yuan per kilogram.
Since the market price hadn’t plummeted, it meant the Pan City Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute’s technology couldn’t achieve mass production. It was only suitable for small-scale cultivation that simulated a wild environment.
"Da Huang, let’s go!" Jiang Miao said, pulling on the leash.
「On the country road to Nanhu Farm.」
The morning sun was bright. Although the north wind still hadn’t let up, the sunlight brought a trace of warmth to pedestrians.
The two of them walked Da Huang, strolling toward the temporary edible fungi laboratory at Nanhu Farm.
「Twenty minutes later.」
At the foot of the hill on the north side of the farm stood the temporary laboratory, constructed from shipping containers.
After changing into a set of protective clothing, Jiang Miao saw the substrate bags Lin Shuya had made using sawdust, soil, quicklime, and gypsum. There were over a hundred bags in total.
These substrate bags used different ratios, arranged in groups of 10. In total, there were 14 control groups.
Through his Appraisal Panel, Jiang Miao could see the status of the white truffle fungus inside the substrate bags.
Three of the groups were showing better growth. Jiang Miao glanced at their labels, a look of ’just as I thought’ in his eyes.
This was because among these three groups, one used forest floor soil from a White Truffle-producing area in Pan City, while the other two used artificial soil formulated to mimic the composition of that same forest soil.
’As expected, the trace elements in the soil have a huge impact on the growth of the white truffle fungus. The phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, and selenium in the soil are especially crucial.’
’And it’s not as simple as just supplementing these elements, because the white truffle fungus has different absorption and utilization rates for various compounds of these elements.’
’For example, with phosphates in the soil, the fungus can effectively utilize occluded phosphorus, provided the soil’s pH is suitable. It won’t utilize other phosphates.’
’Therefore, trying to add nutrients for the fungus using chemical fertilizers is extremely difficult. They don’t like artificial fertilizers—to be precise, they lack the corresponding genes to absorb them.’
’It’s just like how some people are lactose intolerant; the white truffle fungus can’t just absorb and utilize any compound of trace elements.’
’On top of that, it also requires the right combination of temperature, humidity, and organic matter. All of these need specific conditions to ensure the fungus grows rapidly.’
Wearing gloves, Jiang Miao picked up one of the substrate bags. "Shuya, look at this bag. Is that some mycelium growing?"
"Let me see."
Lin Shuya quickly took out a magnifying glass to carefully observe the substrate bags while Jiang Miao helped her record the corresponding data.
"Huh, you’re right!"
After observing all 140 substrate bags, Lin Shuya looked at the data Jiang Miao had compiled and muttered to herself, "The soil brought back from Pan City really does have an effect on the white truffle fungus. And the two groups with artificial soil mimicking the Pan City soil are also showing results."
Jiang Miao smiled and reminded her, "You could set up a few more control groups. For example, try using chemical fertilizers or natural minerals to artificially increase the content of certain trace elements in the cultivation soil and see if there’s a difference."
"That makes sense. It’s possible the white truffle fungus needs natural mineral nutrients that haven’t been artificially synthesized, similar to the eel breeding technology you developed." Lin Shuya had clearly caught on.
Jiang Miao continued, "Also, those few acres of greenhouses should be upgraded after the New Year. We need to be able to control the internal temperature, humidity, and light intensity to test the various conditions the white truffle fungus needs during its growth, including dynamic conditions."
"Then there’s soil pH. After all, among the 50 soil samples collected from Pan City, the fungus prefers to grow in alkaline calcareous soil with a pH between 8.1 and 8.2. This is clearly another important factor. Many modern chemical fertilizers alter soil pH, so I suspect they might have a counterproductive effect on cultivating the white truffle fungus."
Lin Shuya jotted down his ideas.
"Another thing worth researching is the type of organic matter in the soil we brought back. Since it’s a symbiotic fungus that needs to attach to the roots of specific trees to grow, it means those trees are providing it with certain specific nutrients."
Lin Shuya nodded in agreement. "You’re right. It looks like I’ll need to expand the scale of the experiment and add more control groups to figure out all the conditions the white truffle fungus needs to grow."
After all, to mass-produce White Truffles, it’s essential to shorten their growth cycle while also ensuring they accumulate enough flavor compounds.
Therefore, only by thoroughly understanding all the growth conditions of the white truffle fungus could they find the right solution—one that shortens the growth time without sacrificing flavor.
Currently, the growth cycle of White Truffles in their natural environment is as long as seven to eight years. This is obviously far too long and doesn’t meet the requirements for commercial production.
This is also one of the reasons why the Pan City Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute’s simulated wild cultivation technique is difficult to popularize.
The yield from their technique is only 40 to 60 kilograms of White Truffles per mu. At current market prices, that would sell for roughly 24,000 to 36,000 yuan.
However, the cultivation cycle takes seven to eight years. Once it reaches the harvest year, you can only harvest for a few years. After that, you either have to replant or let the area lie fallow to naturally reforest, ensuring the organic matter in the soil can recover.
Clearly, this time cost is simply too high, and it comes with enormous risks. No farmer would be willing to gamble seven or eight years on it.
It’s just like how, in recent years, many small-scale fungal spawn companies have been swindling farmers into cultivating Morchella.
Can this stuff be cultivated?
Yes.
But only on the condition that you have technical support from a provincial-level agricultural and forestry institution, combined with a good dose of luck. Otherwise, blindly planting Morchella will most likely result in a total loss of your investment.
This is because Morchella is extremely picky about temperature and humidity, and the conditions it requires for each are often contradictory. Ordinary greenhouses lack temperature and humidity control systems, leaving farmers at the mercy of the weather.
If you get lucky, you’ll have a bumper crop in the first year.
If you’re unlucky, it’s common to have a total crop failure for several years in a row.
The reason Jiang Miao didn’t have Lin Shuya research Morchella was because the technology for large-scale cultivation already exists: use greenhouses with full temperature and humidity control, and properly sterilize the soil. This can guarantee continuous bumper crops.
The problem is, the cost of doing so is extremely high, and the price of Morchella isn’t particularly high either. This leads to a situation where the value of the output can’t cover the production costs, causing investors to lose money.
