Wheres the Morels
BY mike from Natures Designs
I know every one has there own way of finding them tasty morels, and over the years of hearing so much nonsense, I had to write Where the morels at to help bring commonsense back to morel hunting.
Learn about the morel Mycelium:
The best way to find Morels is to know what it is, and what its doing.
Once you learn that, things get much easer..
People say I have a way of making things understandable, well let me give this a try. I am not going to get in to many words out side of the hillbilly range, but I do want every one to find morels, so lets master the morel.
Morels mushrooms come in many different strains; yellows, grays, white, and blacks, Blacks and spies, (Dog Peckers) are related, but All of them are under ground living organisms, that play out there role in life, they grow, they eat, they reproduce.
Every step of this poses can help you find them. First, what you call morels is not what your looking for, your looking for the morel Mycelium, that grows down 3 to 4 feet under the ground, when the ground thaws, and the morel living organism starts growing, the colder the winter was, the deeper the frozen ground got, and deeper the frozen ground, more damage or shocked the Morel Mycelium (Living organisms) was affected, these cold whether spikes in winter and spring can be good because when the mycelium gets shocked, it gets aggressive growth, to ashier its survival.. this is why real cold winters and forest fires, increase mushrooms the next spring. And cold weather or rain or snow in the spring can help get the Mycelium growing faster. But once the Mycelium starts growing, it will be looking for nutrition, (food) morels can be picky at times, but others times I have seen morels in places they just should not be, so they can pop up any wear because Mycelium works like a spider web network and can transfer food from Mycelium to Mycelium. Because ones it touches another same strain morel Mycelium it becomes one organisms. And if it cant find food it can just pop 1 or 2 morels any wear, but when the Mycelium finds a good sores of food it must grow all over it, because more its touching it more it can take nutrition (food) from it, when it consumes enough food, it grows faster, spider webbing out every were, looking for a way to sprout morel mushrooms, when the right moister and warmth form the sun on the leaves, creating the perfect, mushroom growing spot, morels start popping out any were they can brake out from the leaves, or soil.
When do I go hunting for morels?
The easiest way to tell someone where to find morels is to say hunt Ash, Elm trees, on the south side to the top of hills. Because ash and elm trees have all of the food the m need, and the south side and top of the hill should be the first place the sun hits, so its the first place to worm up.
When looking for Ash trees, the Ash trees can be alive or dead because the old limes decaying in the ground could be the perfect food. When looking for Elm trees you want to find a dead first to second year Elm tree, because its still has all of its moister and all of its nutrition, so how do you know how long the tree or part of the tree has been dead? Look at the topes of the trees if you find a Elm tree with only the very top bark missing or cracked that is a first or second year old dead tree. That is prefaced, for morels! But if the Mycelium is not there or has not yet made it to the top of the soil, morels will not be found. Mark good spots, and come back later in the spring, and even yearly. Now you can find morels growing around Oak trees, Apple trees, and Crabapple trees, and Dogwoods, but I hunt for the Ash and Elm tree the most, you can find morels growing in valleys and crick beads, but I normally find more around Ash and Elm trees, on the south side and tops of hills, then any wear.
When do I do Morel hunting?
That depends on where you live, you can go to morel mushroom chat rooms, or forms for your state and get picking dates, but I will say any time in the spring if you know what your doing, and as far as going out right after the rain. a morel will takes 5 to 14 days to reach full growth with all the food and moister it need, so its not like the morels going to pop 6 tall that day, then die that night, you have time to find them the week of the rain, but I will say the rain can make them stand out more!
And hear is a real good helpful hint to finding a place to hunt, especially if your traveling to hunt. Live Search Maps have 3D Aerial that can show wooded south side hills, and you can even use the Birds eyes view, to zoom in and see them dead Elm trees, and where to park.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?wip=2&v=2&style=r&rtp=~&&msnurl=home.aspx?%26redirect%3dfalse&msnculture=en-US
a must see!!!!!!
