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IOWA 2022...a prelude

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#61 ·
Found near the Cedar River/Palisades area. 4-inch soils barely broke 50 at any time.

This is only my second year looking, and both years have been crap. I'm happy with this though! Found these in the first 15 minutes, then didn't find anything for the next 3 hours. It definately seemed like as I got closer to the river the plant growth slowed down. The area next to the river seemed at least a week or two behind the area just .5 miles away. Micro climates?


Food Ingredient Natural foods Plant Spice
 
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#62 ·
vertexshader said:
Found near the Cedar River/Palisades area. 4-inch soils barely broke 50 at any time.

This is only my second year looking, and both years have been crap. I'm happy with this though! Found these in the first 15 minutes, then didn't find anything for the next 3 hours. It definately seemed like as I got closer to the river the plant growth slowed down. The area next to the river seemed at least a week or two behind the area just .5 miles away. Micro climates?


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Yes micro climate. I have hills that are early every year, and self taught mushroom hunter for 18 years. I tree hunt and ground hunt while walking to the tree. Went to pull a few out of my grandmother's back yard I had left growing, 30 mins later I had to go back and get another mesh bag, after about 45 mins I had just under 3 lbs. Some big foots too!!! That website you mentioned while is consistent, it isn't measuring the temp on the hills you and me are hunting, you need a thermometer with a metal probe. From what I read years back, morels start at exactly 53.7 F look on South and West and southwest hills for Bigfoots.
 
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#63 ·
greys said:
Yes micro climate. I have hills that are early every year, and self taught mushroom hunter for 18 years. I tree hunt and ground hunt while walking to the tree. Went to pull a few out of my grandmother's back yard I had left growing, 30 mins later I had to go back and get another mesh bag, after about 45 mins I had just under 3 lbs. Some big foots too!!! That website you mentioned while is consistent, it isn't measuring the temp on the hills you and me are hunting, you need a thermometer with a metal probe. From what I read years back, morels start at exactly 53.7 F look on South and West and southwest hills for Bigfoots.
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Thanks greys! I wouldn't doubt your credentials! You are correct - this is simply one data point and a pretty simple database. Cedar Rapids has a pretty unique climate. The resources we have as Iowans is pretty cool though. Much better than google maps.

For awesome topo maps: Iowa Geographic Map Server
 
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#66 ·
vertexshader said:
Greys, given the high air temp this week, should we expect more fruiting? I thought high temps and winds were bad...
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I would say yes, Just got back early, hotter than hell. I still have the same hills that started on the 27th, south and west, that are still popping. Pulled another 1.8 lbs. As for the wind, There wasn't any deep in the woods.
 
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#68 ·
Man is it hot, i was in the woods by 7am and was sweating like a pig. The thorn patch didnt have much this year and they are going down hill fast. Did a small walk in the river bottom and found 4 pounds or so around a big sycamore tree and they were real fresh, some of them could have used a couple more days of growing. Could be a good year in the bottoms if i can get up the ambition to go look some more. Hope everyone is doing good.
 
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#69 ·
vertexshader said:
Found near the Cedar River/Palisades area. 4-inch soils barely broke 50 at any time.

This is only my second year looking, and both years have been crap. I'm happy with this though! Found these in the first 15 minutes, then didn't find anything for the next 3 hours. It definately seemed like as I got closer to the river the plant growth slowed down. The area next to the river seemed at least a week or two behind the area just .5 miles away. Micro climates?


View attachment 43093
Click to expand...
Definitely micro-climates. The thing about lakes and rivers is that they occupy low ground, and are thus cold sinks. I first hit upon this many years ago before I started mushroom hunting. A fishing buddy and I were told by an old timer that when the dogwoods bloomed around a certain lake, the walleye would be on fire! So, the pampered dogwoods in suburban front yards were blooming like crazy, and we went fishing that Saturday, only to find no dogwoods in evidence in the woods around the lake! Microclimate.

My high spot always produces before my low spot. Plus the best spot in my high spot is on the edge of a 2 track that gets direct sunlight. There is a half keeled over apple tree there that still has half its root ball in the ground so it is still alive, but clearly in distress. It's a little honey hole. Deeper into the woods is another apple tree where I've had luck finding lots of the late season bigfoot morels. I checked when I was there last. The honey hole gave me about 2 1/2 lbs, and the second had nothing but a bunch of little verpa around it. I did soil temps at both places. The honey hole was 54.4 degrees, the second spot was 51.1 degrees.
 
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#72 ·
shroomsearcher said:
Definitely micro-climates. The thing about lakes and rivers is that they occupy low ground, and are thus cold sinks. I first hit upon this many years ago before I started mushroom hunting. A fishing buddy and I were told by an old timer that when the dogwoods bloomed around a certain lake, the walleye would be on fire! So, the pampered dogwoods in suburban front yards were blooming like crazy, and we went fishing that Saturday, only to find no dogwoods in evidence in the woods around the lake! Microclimate.
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That makes sense. The weird thing about this area (41.899, -91.503) is that its 60 feet above the river, so you would expect the cold air to fall down to the river. But the whole area is stunted. Very interesting.
 
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#73 ·
I didn't find many morels this year but I did get a little consolation gift, which was NOT a false morel!

Birds nest fungus! They were very small (this display is like 4 inches across). As cup fungus they are in the same family as morels, but these are awesome as they have these little 'eggs' that fly out of the cup if a drop of rain hits it just right. I've been hoping to find these for a long time, so that was fun.

Plant Terrestrial plant Natural material Grass Terrestrial animal
 
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#76 ·
vertexshader said:
I didn't find many morels this year but I did get a little consolation gift, which was NOT a false morel!

Birds nest fungus! They were very small (this display is like 4 inches across). As cup fungus they are in the same family as morels, but these are awesome as they have these little 'eggs' that fly out of the cup if a drop of rain hits it just right. I've been hoping to find these for a long time, so that was fun.
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I hadn't heard of those before your post, thanks for sharing. So cool!
 
scrid

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#80 ·
Hello all! I'm late getting in here this year. Hope everyone is well!
Finally got to go out yesterday for about 4 hours and got skunked. Western Iowa river bottoms.
Did I already miss the season? It seems pretty dry out there still.
 
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