Statistics for June 2026: 28 individual hunts at 16 different farms over 17 days finding >138kg of truffles (with a significant, >65 kg, amount of rot).
June was warmer than expected and I feel this affected the ripening process of truffles and also increased bug activity. So surface truffles had a lot more bug damage, leading to increased rot.
Commercial farms with good maintenance are beginning to show an increase in harvests. However, younger farms with shallow truffle have had more disappointing results. Also, farms with poor weed/grass management have also suffered in their production this could be due to competition for water during the summer months which were particularly hot last summer.
Due to this warmer weather, I suggested postponing a few hunts for later in the month to allow more time for the truffles to ripen.
By the end of June harvests at well maintained producing farms were still increasing however amounts of rot were still higher than last year.
This is most likely due to a sudden intense down pour of rain which continued for 4 days in the third week of June. The shear amount of rain and the fact that it was continuous meant that the soil was completely water logged at some farms. The water couldn’t be drained fast enough which was especially problematic in farms which had high clay content.
I feel the weather conditions were not favourable during June due to being too warm and this has delayed ripening which led to more bug damage and subsequent water damage/rot. Farms which are older, have deeper truffles and better drainage were less affected than younger farms which tend to have more surface truffle.
These shallower truffles are also kept warmer during the day and are less insulated from temperature fluctuations in the soil. Whereas deeper truffles will have a more consistent temperature. This too could impact the shallow truffles temperature and hence delay its trigger to start ripening.
I feel that individual farm temperatures (elevation), truffle depth, farm maintenance, summer watering, insect numbers and soil water draining ability had a huge impact on the harvests during June. If the farm was favourable in the above conditions they were less affected by the warmer wet weather. However, if a farm had any or multiple of the above issues then it had a very significant impact on the harvest. June seemed to be quite unforgiving for the truffles of 2026.