Improving morel habitat.

Mahindra3016

5 year old buck +
From what i have read it is nearly impossible to grow morels, but what about improving the habitat they grow in to produce more?
I have started finding a few morels under wild apple and pear trees that i have limed, and have found no morels under the ones that I have not limed, the trees are all in the same area.
I have read that apple orchards are good places to hunt because they were limed heavy.
What about planting elm seedlings in spots where i am already finding mushrooms around dead elms? I would think the seedlings would only grow so big and die and may help produce mushrooms.
I have a spot that is one elm in the middle of a pine stand that produces morels, only about 8-15 a season, they pop right up through the pine needles, I may lime this area to see if it improves.

Do you think i am on to something, or do i sound crazy?
 
A few years ago I bought a morel spore kit and planted it. And a week later my neighbor stopped and gave me about a dozen. I washed them in cold water and caught the water in a bucket. Then I took about 2-3 of the worst looking ones and chopped them up and added them to my slurry. I put that into a 5 gallon bucket along with wood ash and molasses and wood saw dust and a small water pump to keep the water moving for 24 hours. After 24 hours I took my bucket and split it into 20 buckets and filled them and poured the buckets around my apple trees which have wood chip mulch around them. 1 year later I found 2 morels in the homemade mix and nothing in the store bought stuff.
 
Look on YouTube for a how to video. That’s where I found my info on making my slurry.
 
The few morels I see growing are all under, or near, a line of mature pines. I don't really know what that means, but I pass it along for what it's worth.
 
Funny you bring this up as I've been brainstorming the same thing (even to the point of planting elms).

Here's what I know about morels; they grow in roots and have a symbiotic relationship with the tree they are growing with. When the plant is sick or damaged the morel sends up fruiting bodies (the mushrooms we eat) to reproduce, when the plant is healthy and not stressed the fungus does not send up fruiting bodies. Your forest is probably thick with morel fungus growing underground but seldom sending up mushrooms...

3 Things I've found that stresses trees: Burns, sickness, and damage.
I spend a lot of time looking up when mushroom hunting. Trees that are broken get a good look. Trees that have bark slipping but are still budding out get a good look. And trees in burn area's get a good look.

Once a tree is dead they stop producing for me.

Take this info and correlate it with this experience: I use to hammer nails into trees for climbing pegs and used 2x4's for stands. These trees would sometimes get sick and die. As it turns out my stand sites tended to be good morel producers. The trees were getting sick from all the nails I put in them and slowly kicked the bucket. In turn they produced great flushes in the spring until the tree went ahead and died. I was accidentally promoting morel habitat. I've since quit using nails but am now considering doing this again on purpose. Lets say I want a tree for firewood in the future or to clear a spot for a plot... I might as well make trees sick and collect 5yrs worth of morels from them before doing it.

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.
 
From what i have read it is nearly impossible to grow morels, but what about improving the habitat they grow in to produce more?
I have started finding a few morels under wild apple and pear trees that i have limed, and have found no morels under the ones that I have not limed, the trees are all in the same area.
I have read that apple orchards are good places to hunt because they were limed heavy.
What about planting elm seedlings in spots where i am already finding mushrooms around dead elms? I would think the seedlings would only grow so big and die and may help produce mushrooms.
I have a spot that is one elm in the middle of a pine stand that produces morels, only about 8-15 a season, they pop right up through the pine needles, I may lime this area to see if it improves.

Do you think i am on to something, or do i sound crazy?
Morels are know to do best in good neutral soil. They are know to best where limestone deposits are near the surface. This would explain the liming having a positive effect. I'm not sure that the apple orchards are good because of the liming but more the partnership to the apple trees. It is usually the wild apples or the long neglected old overgrown apple orchards that seem to produce, not so much the apple orchards that are being used for producing apples now.
 
I made a slurry and dipped all my rootstock in it. I have thrown slurry around wild apple trees, but nothing has grown yet.

They say to spread fresh wood ash around to prompt them to fruit. I just made a bunch of ash, but it got rained on yesterday, so i have to start over. Lime may have the same effect as ash.
 
Funny you bring this up as I've been brainstorming the same thing (even to the point of planting elms).

Here's what I know about morels; they grow in roots and have a symbiotic relationship with the tree they are growing with. When the plant is sick or damaged the morel sends up fruiting bodies (the mushrooms we eat) to reproduce, when the plant is healthy and not stressed the fungus does not send up fruiting bodies. Your forest is probably thick with morel fungus growing underground but seldom sending up mushrooms...

3 Things I've found that stresses trees: Burns, sickness, and damage.
I spend a lot of time looking up when mushroom hunting. Trees that are broken get a good look. Trees that have bark slipping but are still budding out get a good look. And trees in burn area's get a good look.

Once a tree is dead they stop producing for me.

Take this info and correlate it with this experience: I use to hammer nails into trees for climbing pegs and used 2x4's for stands. These trees would sometimes get sick and die. As it turns out my stand sites tended to be good morel producers. The trees were getting sick from all the nails I put in them and slowly kicked the bucket. In turn they produced great flushes in the spring until the tree went ahead and died. I was accidentally promoting morel habitat. I've since quit using nails but am now considering doing this again on purpose. Lets say I want a tree for firewood in the future or to clear a spot for a plot... I might as well make trees sick and collect 5yrs worth of morels from them before doing it.

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.
I also noticed this year where I ran the brush hog near a wild apple tree through some brush that I got a good flush of morels, 11 at once, right in the brush hogged path, it was mowed last fall.

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From what i have read it is nearly impossible to grow morels, but what about improving the habitat they grow in to produce more?
I have started finding a few morels under wild apple and pear trees that i have limed, and have found no morels under the ones that I have not limed, the trees are all in the same area.
I have read that apple orchards are good places to hunt because they were limed heavy.
What about planting elm seedlings in spots where i am already finding mushrooms around dead elms? I would think the seedlings would only grow so big and die and may help produce mushrooms.
I have a spot that is one elm in the middle of a pine stand that produces morels, only about 8-15 a season, they pop right up through the pine needles, I may lime this area to see if it improves.

Do you think i am on to something, or do i sound crazy?

You can't improve habitat as it is more than habitat.

The first mistake mushroom gathers make early on is to use bags for gathering that are sealed ... such as the common grocery plastic bags.

Mushrooms regenerate by opening like a pine cone to spread seed. as they open & dry very small spores (seed) are wind dispersed.

Use mesh bags like the onion bags you get in grocery stores to carry mushrooms out. You can't predict habitat, wind, sun, moisture , or temp ... but you can let the seed find a new home.
 
Spud - I've read that very thing ( onion bags ) in several mushrooming books and lots of articles. Great point about the bags ^^^.
 
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