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Keep traveling in the woods it makes you a better person and Hunter of the elusive and Wiley morel!

 

Hf man just look for the dead elms
I found some reading for you,
1. Morchella (Morel) Mushrooms propogate by sending a hairlike mycelium underground.
The ground can’t be so compact that it blocks the mycelium from doing it’s thing. This is also where the moisture and heat help soften the soil as things thaw out in the spring. The ground being less compact and saturated with extra moisture are also what makes streams and creekbeds such good places to check.

2. The mycelium needs to find a subsoil food source (decaying tree roots) or surface seeping food source (fallen bark) for the energy and nutrients it expands as it sends the mushroom top up through the soil. This is where the dead roots of mature elms or slipping bark around the base of recently dead tree become one of the critical elements necessary for fruition.

3. In many of the books I’ve read they say that night time temperatures need to be above 40 degrees for at least 4 days in a row.The overnight lows and daytime highs are key in creating the necessary ground temperatures that everyone knows are a big factor. This is also why burn areas warm up faster and tend to help create necessary conditions when the blackened earth helps warm the soil and create food sources for the mycelium by killing the trees or outer bark.

4. Daytime temperatures need to be at least above 70 degrees for one or more days as well as the overnight lows remaining above 40 degrees before they come out of their dormant state from winter. The combination of overnight lows and daytime highs directly determine ground temperature.

5. The last and probably the most critical thing to fall in place is the moisture! We all know how important it is to have moisture at the right times, but we also need the moisture along with heat. Even though we’ve had late spring rains and more moisture than previous years we need the heat and moisture together to create the correct growing conditions that Morchella mushrooms need. Even though the mycelia underground start to awaken once ground temps come up they also need hot days to really do their thing and let the fungus grow.

 

And there's this...
They are not decomposers or parasites like many mushrooms. They are symbionts, meaning that the hyphae of their mycelial strands hooks up with the root hairs of trees (in most cases) for a mutually beneficial relationship. They provide nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which they extract from the soil, and increase the water supply to the tree. In exchange, the tree provides stored food energy in the form of carbohydrates (sugars) made in the leaves. As a consequence, the tree grows better, and so does the fungal mycelium. Morels are known to form a symbiotic relationship with 22 species of trees. Here in the Midwest, most of us have probably found them around elms, sometimes around ash trees, and often in old apple orchards. They also have the same relationship with oaks, silver maple, sycamore, cottonwoods, black locust and more. In the SE US, tulip poplar is a dominant tree and the primary symbiont for morels.

around recently dead and dying elm trees than they are around healthy elms, or oaks, or other symbionts. I have a theory that attempts to explain that very thing. It is called the Loss of the Symbiotic Relationship Theory. As the elm dies, so does its root hairs. They no longer provide plant sugars to the hyphae of the morel mycelium. Consequently, the mycelial body senses the loss of the symbiotic relationship as the tree dies. In survival mode, the mycelium sends up a flush of the spore-bearing structures we call morels. Rain, wind, morel hunters, and insects carry the spores out to new locations where they can begin to grow and seek new symbiotic relationships. This happens as the tree is dying. After it has been dead for two years or more, it is very unlikely that morels will still be found at that site. One visual aid that helps us know whether to spend our time looking around a dead elm is to look at the bark. If most of the bark remains on the tree, it is a recently dead elm, and it is worthwhile to look around it. If most of the bark has fallen off, the tree has likely been dead two or more years and it is a waste of time to look there because morels have already abandoned the site. In Michigan, the decline of ash vigor as ash trees are infected by Emerald Ash Borers has led to a similar pronounced fruiting. However, ash trees seem to be dying off faster than elms. One can always hope that other symbiotic trees will become good spots to find morels. Perhaps sugar maple or aspen, for instance. Apple trees are slower to decline than elms or ash, and that is likely the reason why old apple orchards seem to be good places over a long period of time to seek morels.

 

I have a honey hole that is dead elms and apple trees. Hurry up next weekend in my neck of the woods. Tasty blondes!

 

Nice insight Rosie.