Anyone ever heard of someone training a dog to sniff them out?
Morel Mushrooms?
- Thread starter cymac2408
- Start date
I’ve heard that there dogs in Europe that hunt out Truffles. I am going to try and teach my Doberman but it may be hard because all she wants to is track deer. I’ll update you on the results.
I'd settle for my shepherd fetching me a beer...morels would be icing on the cake.
Too dry right now IMO. One rain and a hot day and they will pop.
Morel Mushroom Sightings - Maps
The Great Morel sighting maps are a great resource for monitoring the progression of the morel mushroom and when one might begin their foraging adventure. New and improved morel sightings map along with historical maps to help monitor and watch for the morel coming to a woods near you.
www.thegreatmorel.com
I'm somewhat certain pigs can hunt out Truffles too.
I don't know if the cattle had anything to do with it. But, about 20 years ago we went on our annual mothers day walk that passed through the pasture on the way to the river and woods. This was the first spring after we got rid of the remaining cattle. We came across an insane amount of them, more than I will ever see in one place again. Went back to the spot the next year and found about 1/3 the number from previous year. The year after that, there was one.
When I find a giant patch of them in one spot, my experience is that it is the organisms last gasp. It's running out of food in that area and pops all the mushrooms to push out as many spores as possible. Whenever I have come across a large patch, 30 or more in one spot 20 feet or so in diameter, especially around a dying tree, within two years, there won't be any in that spot again.
It's always a double edged sword. About 10 years ago I came across a dying Elm with about 150 large yellows around it, minimum 4" up to about 10" morels. I couldn't step towards the tree without stepping on a mushroom. It was great to get a huge haul like that, but I haven't even found one in that spot since that day.
This spot was next to a large standing old oak. It was also on a southish facing hill. There were hundreds of them here. There were about 10 of us there and we spent at least half an hour picking them. Later on that walk we found a few small patches with just a few mushrooms. Rolled them in crushed Ritz and fried them in butter when we returned.
This was the first time I had ever heard of them. We go on a mother's day walk every year through the woods mainly to look at the bluebells along the river. This year we invited the neighbors and they suggested we look for morels while on the walk. 5 minutes in we were walking up the hill. My brother was the first to notice some and asked what they were. The neighbor started freaking out. After lots of years of searching and coming up empty I now understand why. If he hadn't said something we probably would have walked straight past them. There was nothing specific about the spot that would tell a person to look at the ground there.
Guessing they pop next weekend after the rain forecasted for this week. In southern/central Iowa anyway. It will be another week for us up here.
@cymac2408
Picked our first 7 yesterday. Get a small amount (only 15-20) every spring, along our driveway.
Picked our first 7 yesterday. Get a small amount (only 15-20) every spring, along our driveway.
I had a dependable place near a creek on my land. Never monstrous hauls but always nice ones.
A few years back they were everywhere including growing out the steep sides of the creek bank.
That was 5 years ago and total haul in the four years since, zero.
Yeah, my theory is 100% anecdotal. A bit of it is from talking with a mycologist, Tom Volk, from UW La Crosse and how mushrooms work. Especially Morels, they do infect the trees roots, but it's a symbiotic relationship. The mycelium grows into the roots, helping the tree to extract more nutrients from the soil and the fungus gets carbohydrates from the tree sap in the roots. So if something kills the tree, the mushroom has to find a way to move on.
But my experiences are pretty much as you have described. Plenty of places I would get a decent haul over the years, but when the major bloom happened in that spot, it was dead from there on out.
Hoping for some rain today and warmer weather next week. That should get things going.
