Chinese chestnut seedling mycorrhization with porcini

I am delighted to report that a SARE Farmer/Rancher grant which I submitted has been fully funded. The funding will go to a research project, where we’ll study a forest farming practice known as mycosilviculture. In particular, we are seeking to colonize the roots of a new orchard’s worth of Chinese chestnut seedlings, with a type of ectomycorrhizal fungus known as King Bolete, aka porcini. The relationship between porcini and chestnut is already a mutualism that occurs in nature and also spontaneously in some orchards in Europe and Asia. To our knowledge however, we will be the first chestnut growers in America to study this relationship, and certainly to induce it deliberately. We hope we can pave the way by thoroughly documenting our success in such a way that others could follow our methodology. Additionally, after validating our methods, we hope to offer shelf-stable inoculum, mycorrhized seedlings, and consulting services as part of our offerings. You can read more about the project here. Please reach out if you have questions or interest, we’d love to tell you more about what we’re up to.