Searching 2 rows at a time is something I rarely do when truffle hunting. At a 3-year-old farm in Sale I was able to adapt my search to search two rows at a time. I will go through my many reasons for being able to search 2 rows at a time and the reason I searched this way at this farm.

The most obvious reason for searching two rows at a time is to optimized search time and reduce the cost for the client however not at the expense of reducing my quality of service. It is rare that the conditions of a farm and perfect weather conditions allow for this kind of search.

There were 9 conditions which had to be met to allow for this.

Wind speed: There had to be a gentle consistent wind to allow the odour molecules to move freely to be able to be picked up by the dog on the row over. However not a gusty wind. If the wind picked up strong then disappeared, then picked up again there would be times when the odour molecules from a truffle would stay close to the source and other times blown so far that the scent cone was too narrow.

Wind direction: The direction of the wind had to be across the rows so the odour molecules were travelling from one row towards the next row. The direction couldn’t be up and down the rows.

Wind direction consistency: I was constantly monitoring the wind direction to ensure it wasn’t consistently changing direction.

Low weed load: This farm had excellent weed control so weeds weren’t going to obscure the odour by trapping it between rows or close to the source

Warm air and warm soil: Allow for the highest amount of odour molecules being released from the truffle from warm soil and air. This hunt happened to be in the afternoon on a warmer winter day.

Moist soil and not water logged: It hadn’t recently rained in this area so the soil wasn’t water logged. Water logged soil reduces the number of odour molecules getting to the surface of the soil and then getting into the air. The rows on this farm were also deliberately raised from the results from the planning survey prior to planting by TruffleGrowing.com. This allowed for better drainage at this particular location.

Searching downwind of both rows: It’s imperative to keep track of which two rows you are searching and walk down wind of both of those rows.

Finding all the hides on the furthest row: Putting down low odour hides on the furthest side of the furthest row you are searching to ensure the weather conditions and dog are able to smell the hardest truffle aroma.

Not too many truffles: When there are many truffles then converging odours can make for challenging searches. To search two rows at a time and know that you won’t miss anything there can only be the occasion truffle.

All of these conditions were met at this farm at the time of the search so I was able to search two rows at time. The dogs found all the low odour hides and we ended up also finding their first truffle on 3-year-old farm, set up by Noel Fitzpatrick from TruffleGrowing.com.