Are you excited with thoughts of filling baskets of morel mushrooms to overflow capacity? Here are some tips to help you have a great mushroom harvest this year.
If morel mushrooms aren’t already showing up where you live they soon will be. Are you ready? Here are ten quick tips to help fuel your morel mushroom daydreams.
1. The temperature is just right
I’m not saying that morels are fickle or anything, but they are a little like the baby bear who wanted his porridge to be “just right.” Keep an eye on the temperature outside. Morels like it when it starts to get around 60 degrees and above during the day, and night temperatures hover around 40 degrees. Also, get yourself a soil thermometer and check the temperature of the soil where you hunt. Morels start popping up when the earth gets between 45 degrees and 50 degrees.
2. The slope of the hill
The side of a hill that gets more sun will, of course, get warmer before the other side. That’s where morels will start showing up first. Check those south-facing slopes early in the season.
3. Know your trees
Morels can be tree huggers. Learn to identify the trees, with and without their leaves, that morels like to hang around and you’ll be more successful. Elm, ash, poplar and apple trees are well-known morel mushroom favorites. Look for dead and dying trees too. But bear in mind that morels also show up wherever they show up.
4. The lay of the land
Morels like loamy soil. Loamy soil is what you might find in creek bottoms. It’s well-drained, moist but not wet, has a good mix of clay, sand, decaying matter, calcium and/or lime. But again, morels can appear wherever they appear. I’ve found them growing in gravel and under pine trees.
