Mushroom hunting in Ohio........could use some help:)

[hanlonfive]

Hi everyone! I know it's that time again for mushroom hunting out in the woods.............I need some helpful tips though. I used to go when I was a kid but have forgotten where to look, what they look like, and when to go hunting, etc. Any help would be appreciated!

Peace and blessings,

Kelli

[cowgirlone]

If you are looking for morels, they look like this.




Here is a link from the outdoor forum with more pictures. shroomer's pics

We hunt them around the first week of April around here. We find them around fallen logs, rotting wood.

Good luck to you and happy hunting.

[hanlonfive]

Thanks Cowgirlone!!!!

Peace and blessings,

kelli

[MELOC]

poplar tree groves and orchards are a good place to look. look for dense groves of poplar trees. if there are any places left that have elm trees, those are good areas as well. an area that has a stand of may apple plants may be a good area.

[MoonShine]

Originally Posted by MELOC

an area that has a stand of may apple plants may be a good area.

Really?! Awesome...I have been out mushroom hunting twice recently and haven't found a thing. I did see tons of may apples coming up,though...maybe I'll go back and investigate those areas.

Happy hunting,Hanlonfive! I hope you have better luck than I have so far

Everyone has their special places to look. Some prefer poplar, some hickory, some fruit trees. I've hunted them all my life and have seen to corrolation to anything. Even the fungi experts can't agree on what morels need in the soil to grow and the kits they sell to grow your own in your yard are rarely successful. One of the best patches of yellow morels I ever had was a patch of mowed grass along a railroad track without a tree in sight. Another was in a briar patch with no trees around. The guy who invents a way to grow them commercially in quantity like button mushrooms will be a millionaire in no time.

[Danaus29]

Grandpa always looked under the mayapples for morels and never found them together. IMO, the mayapples are just an indicator of when to start looking. When the mayapples come up so do morels. I did have one very productive patch under a neighbors apple tree. The ground was covered with morels one year. I left a few for spore renewal. The next year I found only a dozen, left some of those. A year later found only 2, left both of them. Since then the weather hasn't co-operated, usually too dry, last year to wet and cold. I'm hoping to find some this year as the weather is perfect. Another neighbor has them sprouting periodically in their mowed lawn. Haven't seen any the past couple years though.

[suitcase_sally]

Look for dead elm trees where the bark hasn't fallen off the tree yet. An old farmer I knew said if you cut down an elm tree look for morels there the next year. We had one die in our yard. DH cut it down and then cut the log in sections. The next year morels grew along the spot where he cut the log.

[12vman]

I always look around areas where aspen or cottonwood trees grow..

[Bear]

I also use the mayapples as an indicator, and when the liliac bushes start blooming. Most of the morels I found were in stands of tulip poplar trees, mostly black morels, and some yellows later on. Old apple orchards can be productive. Did find afew yellows growing under the apple trees on the farm, but not many. If there is a place that had a fire, woods or fields, morels grow like crazy in those spots. I remember my Mom picking them down on the farm. After my parents passed and I got the farm, I never found them were she did. After awhile I finally figured it out, they used to burn off the hayfields and some of the banks to get rid of the old dead undergrowth and that is why she found them in these areas!

[moonwolf]

I've found and picked various morel species in N. Missouri, Southwest Mo., Kansas river bottom lands, Minnesota, North Central Wisconsin, and N.W. Ontario.

Most generally I look in areas that are partly forested with filtered light over the ground in good rotted leaf litter. In Missouri a special area long time ago was in association with a ditch and creek bed lined with a mixed elm, oak, brush, cottonwoods, and/or other deciduous trees. If you see one and are down a slope, look up very closely as many others I've found seem obvious as a 'wash down' effect from above.

Here are a couple of pictures of morel I find in my 'woodlot' areas of the northland. The ground composition is generally aspen leaf litter mixed with some rotting wood material. The trees in these two particular areas are mostly a canopy of white spruce mixed with balsam and taller aspens. It gets filtered light throughout most of the day, especially morning and late afternoon. The other area I find them is a stand of almost pure balsam poplar hardwoods. Weather and moisture are also big influences about whether it's going to be a good fruiting year for morels.

[MELOC]

the mayapples...that is why i worded my statement as i did "areas with mayapples". most of the good areas i hunt have patches of mayapples growing nearby. i have only found a few morels growing directly with the mayapples. it is hard to hunt in them anyway. i find an area that has mayapple growth and look for stands of poplar trees. i then look for gum trees mixed in with the poplars. i find a lot of morels under gum trees.

there are no definates as poppy said, but all in all, there are lots of common themes to consider. in my neck of the woods, tulip poplar is the biggest factor. if the forest is predominantly tulip poplar then it is a good place to look. close to my house there is a grove of mostly poplar trees that grow on private property. the state forest line there is the exact place where the majority of the trees switch to oak. the morels grow in great number on the poplar side of the line and cannot be found a few feet away in the oaks.

i found a massive patch of large yellows one year under a dead elm tree one year by accident. when i returnd the next year and the year after that, i only found a handful. there is something to that dying elm tree theory.

[Jim S.]

Yep, we hunted them for years! I have had not much luck down here in southern TN, so gave it up after we moved.

My sister in Illinois used all the tricks, man, she was good..."Knows where to look," the old folks all said. "Got the gift."

LOL...then one day she came home empty-handed! Man, was she mad! All her techniques had completely failed her after she tramped a zillion acres of woods that day, and she was bone tired and dejected.

The next morning, she woke up and went to go work in her garden, and under an oak near her garage, she found SIX PAPER GROCERY STORE BAGS FULL of morels! She picked and picked and picked.

Every year for 5 or so years, they came up like clockwork, and always in huge quantities. Then one year they didn't come, and not a single 'room has popped up at that site since. Not one.

The main thing is to get a knack for spotting them. I tell ya, once you spy the first one of the season, it seems like your eyes get tuned in, and you will see them everywhere.

I was out as a 10-year-old kid hunting them with Dad once, and I was starting to whine about how I couldn't find any. Dad said, "Pick up your right foot, you just stepped on one!" Sure enough. After that, I found two bags full that day.

That's why they call it mushroom HUNTING. Heheheheh.

[hanlonfive]

Originally Posted by MoonShine

Really?! Awesome...I have been out mushroom hunting twice recently and haven't found a thing. I did see tons of may apples coming up,though...maybe I'll go back and investigate those areas.

Happy hunting,Hanlonfive! I hope you have better luck than I have so far

Thanks Meloc! Like Moonshine I have seen ALOT of may apples up so maybe in the next morning or so I'll head back out in the woods

Good luck to you too Moonshine!

Peace and blessings,

Kelli

[hanlonfive]

Thanks everyone for your input! I really appreciate it! Hubby and I went out looking yesterday evening and I saw something that kind of looked like some but wasn't sure. When they are first sprouting do they seem "hard" to the touch?

Thanks again!

Kelli

[Danaus29]

They don't sprout so much as POP. One day they are not there, the next POP, there they are. Leaving them alone does not get you bigger mushrooms. And yes, they are hard to the touch, not soft like the name sponge might lead you to believe. Here's a site that might help you: http://morelmushroomhunting.com/

Another really good site:
http://www.thegreatmorel.com/falsemorel.html
http://www.thegreatmorel.com/index.shtml

I checked my spot yesterday, came up empty.

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by hanlonfive

Thanks everyone for your input! I really appreciate it! Hubby and I went out looking yesterday evening and I saw something that kind of looked like some but wasn't sure. When they are first sprouting do they seem "hard" to the touch?

Thanks again!

Kelli

If it is quite dry (like it is here), they can dry out before they get any size on them.

We got a couple yesterday in a creek bed. Some were huge and worth harvesting, others were dried or both stunted and dried and we left those for the goats to enjoy.

We're hoping for rain tonight to help trigger a flush of them.

Lynda

[MELOC]

morels will grow over a period of two or three days until they are finished "popping". i have seen it on mushrooms i have marked and returned to. my neighbors did the same thing with morels growing in their yard.

[hanlonfive]

Thanks again everyone for your input. The websites are awesome and I'll be checking them out!

Peace and blessings,

Kelli