morel season 2011! :)

[lilshadow]

Do they stick up out of the leaves on the ground in wooded area's or do you have to move the leaves around, and once you see one will you know that it's a morel.

 

[Imp]

It has been a long time since I picked morels, but I seem to remember looking under deciduous trees just as the new leaves were starting to come in, in the spring. They would be poking up through the leaves that were on the ground, from the year before. The person teaching me to also watch for lumps in the leaves, move the leaves to check under. She also taught me that it was very poor shroom gatherer manners to "pick" the shroom. Take a pocket knife and cut the stem. If you pull on the stem and dislodge the mycelium underground you can damage it, and it may not produce again for years. Also do not use a rake to pull back leaves or moss as you can (as some "less than professional" pickers have done) damage the area for decades. I was taught that once the leaves came in and shaded the area, morel season was over.

Morels are fairly easy to ID. Just make sure they look like the pix on this thread. Exactly like the pix.

lilshadow,
I don't know if this helps, but Elm trees look almost identical to Alder trees here. The leaves are like twins, but the bark/truncks look different. I wouldn't spend too much time looking for elms though. I believe almost all the Elms in North America have been killed by Dutch Elm Disease. I believe I was looking under cottonwoods.

Imp- Shroom Trivia- The largest organisms on planet earth are mushroom mycelium.

 

[redhen]

I dont know... i dont think i'll ever find any... *sigh*
I'll just stick to getting my shrooms from cow patties... tee hee hee

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Oi! Heads up everyone!

If you are new to morels and plan to go fetch some, mind that you don't end up with "false" morels as they can make you quite ill.

http://thegreatmorel.com/falsemorel.html

http://www.morelmushroom.info/Danger_of_False_Morels.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_morel

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Vrooom!

It took me awhile to develop the shroom eyes. Once I got it in my head, I saw shrooms everywhere.
If your in a more piny area, you might want to look for Oyster mushrooms in the spring and Chanterelles in the fall.

Imp

 

[whiteflare]

Quote:
Wow!

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Vrooom!

It took me awhile to develop the shroom eyes. Once I got it in my head, I saw shrooms everywhere.
If your in a more piny area, you might want to look for Oyster mushrooms in the spring and Chanterelles in the fall.

Imp

Thanks! I'll google them and check it out.

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Vrooom!

It took me awhile to develop the shroom eyes. Once I got it in my head, I saw shrooms everywhere.
If your in a more piny area, you might want to look for Oyster mushrooms in the spring and Chanterelles in the fall.

Imp

Thanks! I'll google them and check it out.

They are both fairly easy to ID. Also Boletes are easy to ID. I haven't found any of those in years.

Oysters- grow like a shelf, usually on dead wood, not really much of a stem. I usually find grayish oysters and stark white angelwings

Chanterelles- moss under evergreen trees, have heavy firm texture and "primitive gills". Gills are firm and run down the stems.

Boletes- Do not have gills, they have a sponge instead. Don't eat if there is any red or orange on them.

I rarely pick gilled mushrooms.

You'll sound like a pro if you call everything you can't ID a LBM (little brown mushroom)

redhen, get a book with good color photos, it's fascinating.

Imp

 

[Hoss1975]

Here is a picture of a dead elm,they have "knees" at the base of the trunk.If you look closely you will see what i'm talking about.Mushrooms will grow just about any where,but there are certain places where they thrive.Concentrate on west or south facing hill sides,creek bottoms,also on the edge of a woods,fence rows.

 

[outdoor junkie]

Quote:
The dead elms are the ones you want to target, they grow under the dead elms, not the live ones. When the big whites pop, I specifically target dead elms. I will drive around or walk through the farmland and search out dead elms, pretty easy to identify from a ways off. The branches will all roll in to the tree when dead, kind of looks like a witches broom. Usually in a day of picking this way i can manage 10 to 15 pounds. Did it once last year me and a buddy drove down to the Michigan Indiana border and back roaded it all the way home picking whites. Took us 12 hours but we picked just shy of 75 pounds that day. I'll have to try and get the pics off the other computer. Found a few yesterday.