The big fat ones are out there. I live in the Chattanooga area and "sometimes" find pretty good sized morels. Six for dinner for a person of one is a full dish. Most people think you have to get into the mountains. The ones I find are at about 680 ft. elevation. I think it is the tree type. I read every book I could find about the art of Morel hunting. So now I've given up on the "abandoned apple orchards", dying Elm trees and Sycamore stands. Where I find them does not look anything like that. But I do have my eye on this 16 inch elm tree that is showing signs of distress. Go figure. Good hunting.
Morels grow where they will. I hunt mostly at my fish and game club of 2,200 acres. We have a bazillion dead elms on the property, but that thread played out a long time ago. The trees have been dead for too long a time. The only elm I've found morels around had recently died, and was still holding all it's bark. I checked it the first year I found it, and no morels. In fact, no morels that whole season, which was my very first. My second year hunting I checked that tree 5 times before I found morels. First and second time, nothing. Third time, hundreds of LBM's! fourth time, nothing, but the LBM's had all died back. My fifth time out hunting I thought about skipping that tree. But, it was only about a 10 minute hike from the road, so I decided to go. Found about 2 dozen morels where the LBM's used to be. Those are the ONLY morels I ever found under that tree. It went topot really fast! I'd keep an eye on that elm. If there's morel mycelium in that soil, associated with that tree, it should flush. But, that's the big question isn't it?
Also, we do have lots of apple trees scattered all over the property. No old orchards, and I've heard that there used to be some really nasty crap sprayed on apple orchards that could still persist in the soil. I find morels around them, and also sycamore, tulip poplar, and eastern cottonwood. I've found a local park with youngish elms near a stream and have checked it the last few years. Nothing so far, but it's close and easy to get to, so I'll keep looking. I've also found youngish living elms trees at my fish and game club but they are, at most, 6 inches in diameter. When I researched Dutch Elm Disease, I learned that elm trees become sexually mature before they become susceptible to the blight. This means there should always be young elms around, and once I started looking, I started finding! I have no idea if these tree will become old enough to flush morels before I take the big dirt nap!
