Kentucky Morels 2023

Soil temps as of this afternoon! And we have a very warm 65-70 degree rain on its way tonight. I’m going to guess that someone in KY will be reporting a find of a black morel in a couple of days. The earliest that I have ever found one in KY was 3/3/2017.

Soil temps topped 65 degrees this afternoon in central KY. I don’t think I have ever seen it that warm this early in the season.

Brownsmushrooms said:

Hey Rick, so your records go back to 2012? That was a record warm year for northern Indiana, and this winter has been very similar, I was finding fully grow morels in late March, which is unheard for northern Indiana.

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My harvests records do go back to 2012. They consist of earliest find dates, type of morel , #’s and county where they were found. I haven’t kept a written record of temperature/rain data.

I’ve heard of 3 reports of people finding blacks in south central KY near Mammoth Cave National Park and south of there. A fellow picker sent this pic of black morels he found yesterday.

Got a couple of reports from 3 guys today. One in Allen county where he picked 40 blacks and some had good size. Another in Larue county that found 20 small blacks that he choose not to pick yet and a 3rd in Eastern Kentucky where he found some early greys. Pic of the 40 from Southern Kentucky.

I was finally able to get in my 1st hunt of the season today. Checked several spots in Jefferson but only found 3 one inch blacks. All 3 growing along a gravel road otherwise I would have never seen them. It’s still early here. Too little to pick.

Finally made it down to my farm near Mammoth Cave National Park. The woods didn’t look ready but I did check 3 patches. Found 8 1-2 inch blacks, enough to fry! Backed out after seeing how small they were. I was afraid I would smash more than I found. As you can see, some were hidden well.

Went back to pick the 3 tiny blacks I found Thursday. The 3 little ones hadn’t grown at all and I didn’t find any new ones. These next couple of frigid mornings are going to freeze the ones that are up already.

Well this just isn’t right. Temps shouldn’t be trending down this time of year.

Checked on a few patches that produced 8 last Saturday. Found 12 and picked 4 of those. The other 8 were very small so I marked them and covered them with leaves to see how tonight’s freeze affects them. All of these I found today looked like they had just popped following last night’s rain.




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All of the one’s I left overnight were not damaged by the 25 degree temps. Found 6 new ones while checking on the others. Picked another 12 to go with yesterday’s 4.
I did leave 2 to see how they fare with the upper teens/low 20’s the next 2 nights.

db77 said:

Not having much luck with the black morels in Grayson Co the last several years. We do fair on the yellow and gray, but finding that first black has been a challenge. Rick, didn’t you do a post a while back about specific areas or trees to key in on for the blacks?

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For black morels I focus primarily on woods that have a lot of tulip or yellow poplars. I find most of mine on east and north facing hillsides or near the crest of those ridges again facing east and north. I do find some near or around beech and pignut hickories but there are almost always poplar nearby also. If the woods are predominantly oak I don’t even bother to look. Most of my better black morels spots are in extremely hilly terrain. When you find one ALWAYS assume that there are others nearby. Get down at ground level and slowly scan that area 360 degrees. Early in the season the blacks are really good at hiding slightly covered by a leaf. As for the big yellows, creek bottoms are my #1 choice around elm and poplar. And those big yellows don’t hide like the blacks. I learned another way to hunt for the black morels 20+ years ago while turkey hunting. More than a few times I would be hustling to set up on an early morning gobbling bird and as I would start climbing up the side of the ridge he was on, I would see morels on the hillside. I would mark them and proceed to set up on the bird. After the hunt I would go back to pick the hillside. I learned quickly that the black morels were much easier to see while ascending the hill as opposed to descending the hill. I used those lessons to start hunting new areas by starting the hunt for black morels at the base of east and north facing hills. It works even better if you try that with the early morning sun to your back which shines on the hillside in front of you. Hope you find these tips helpful. Good luck!

Got back out today in Jefferson where I found my 1st 3 on 3/9. I guess the bad news is it doesn’t appear that any or many new popped there since 3/9. The good news is maybe they were just delayed and not damaged by the freezes. I picked 1! I don’t recall a season like this one where they have been delayed this long after initially popping.

Soils temps are getting right again. We should be able to start finding them again this weekend.

Checked on 3 patches at my Hart County farm this afternoon. Picked 16, 1 was one that I left behind to see how the low 20’s temps affected it. No harm, it doubled in size since last weekend.

Checked on a couple of patches on my farm that I haven’t checked this season. Picked 4 in one patch and they were all mature, 1 didn’t survive the trip in the shroom bag. Picked 6 more in Jefferson on my way home.