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OHIO 2021 Morel Posts & Spring Posts

85K views 275 replies 59 participants last post by  Joe88 
#1 ·
Let's get the OHIO Spring MORELS postings going.

I'll have to confess I'm beginning to think of my early spots and potential early locations already.
 
#5 ·
May I make a suggestion? It would be nice to see when finds are actually posted to know in what part of the state they were found. Just a general idea like SW OH, southern OH, NW OH would be nice. I start out looking to see finds posted in the southern states just to follow the progressions northward. I'm in NE OH, and we're about the last to get going around here.
 
#6 ·
Excellent idea shroomsearcher.

1. The morel white babies, above, April 3, were in Hocking County, SE OH.
I knew to pull away the leaves to look for them because the prior year I found that tree with 90+ hollow Morel Stubs where someone found it first and got them all!! I determined to visit that tree a month earlier the next year -- it worked.

2. The nice Black Morels, April 5, were from Franklin County, Central OH. They were from within the city limits of Columbus. The creek bank had a South face with about a 30 degree slope -- therefore presenting a great sun warming orientation for early finds. The ground temp heat sink effect of in-the-city I had attempted to quantify in a prior year (2012) and it seemed to be worth about +2.1 degrees farenheight.

Sooo . . . does that mean Go to the big City microniches to find early Morels? Ha!!

3. Great hunting to all!!
 
#34 ·
What type terrain are you hunting? Im mostly in deep ravine type areas, old age timber, good amount of tulip trees, but other hardwoods mixed in as well, hillsides of almost pure tulips trees don't produce well for me, for whatever reason. Hunt the cool side of the hills, look up high, they'll come up there first and produce lower as the season progresses and temps are right lower down the slope. I have hillsides that I've been picking for 15 years, some years better than others depending on the weather, but they are there every year...it's been my experience that if you can locate a good patch of blacks you'll find other varieties there as well, blacks are very picky, if they'll grow there, so will others.
My days of aimlessly walking around are over, I know where they prefer to grow in my area, so I look to my topo, pick specific hillsides and walk, not hunt, straight to them, if nothing is there I move on to the next one. Half or more of the battle is eliminating most of the woods. Most of my spots are not close to roads, some are 3 miles from where I park and or rough hikes to get to them.... Good luck.
 
#9 ·
Basically, all of our Ash trees have died here due to the borer. And they went quick! I checked closely around them when they got into trouble, thinking that might bring about a flush, like it did with the elms. No luck! And we don't really have "stands" of Tulip Trees, just isolated ones here and there. At least that's what I've found.

And, as far as the Ohio Division of Forestry goes, there are no such things as "poplar" trees in this state. Tulip "poplars" are Tulip Trees. The other trees that people call "poplar" are really Dogtooth and Bigtooth Aspen. Still, I guess that blacks can grow around them, but I have never found any substantial numbers of them in my area.
 
#13 ·
Shroomseacher you ever hunt Mohican state forest? Specifically around the state park area down in the area around the covered bridge? Just down from the pleasant hill dam along the river? There are stands of tulip poplars in that area and they produce blacks and giant yellows. Also a lot of big sycamores that will have morels growing in the spider roots as I call them. I don’t get that way to hunt much anymore haven’t been for last 4-5 years but used to take family there and say see that tree 50 yards away go look bet you there’s morels and there always was! They were always amazed. You can spot tulip trees from a distance in variety of ways. They are the tallest and straightest trees in the woods for one. For another when they pop there buds in the trees there leaves are a much brighter green than other trees colors. Very noticeable once you get the hang of it.
 
#17 ·
Never hunted that far afield, but maybe a road trip would be in order this year. A few years back, I found a big gang of yellows under a tree that I couldn't identify at first. At least when I was standing close to it. Couldn't identify the lower bark, and looking at the upper part of the tree the sky was too bright for me to really make anything out. But, it's not far from a power line, so once I finished I walked out there and looked at the tree. It was a sycamore! This was the first, and only, time I had ever found morels near one. Maybe that's because it is the ONLY sycamore in the area. And it is on high ground, nowhere near lowland fertile soil or watercourse, which is where you normally find sycamores.

I'd like to have something to add, but -- truth be told -- I have only one spot for black morels in Central OH (city limits) and I've found them there every year without fail for 7 years in a row.

The interesting thing was that last year, I went over the same area several times and every time I found more. Thinking I had surely found all of them, I then moved on and upon returning downstream, to leave, I found more black morels again than the first time and the 3 traverses of the same bank area!!!

This keeps me humble. I'm just a "learner"! Maybe I should go back to crawling on the ground?
The first morels I ever found took 3 looks at the exact same patch of ground! I had an elm that I thought was prime even though I was a rookie. On my first look the some of the ground near the elm was covered with little brown mushrooms. The second time I visited, the lbm's had died back and nothing was growing there. My third time in the area I thought about not going in there, figuring the place was a bust. But it only takes 10 minutes round trip to walk in and out, so what the heck! I found 22 yellows in an area about 12'x12'.

It can pay to go back over old ground.
 
#14 ·
I'd like to have something to add, but -- truth be told -- I have only one spot for black morels in Central OH (city limits) and I've found them there every year without fail for 7 years in a row.

The interesting thing was that last year, I went over the same area several times and every time I found more. Thinking I had surely found all of them, I then moved on and upon returning downstream, to leave, I found more black morels again than the first time and the 3 traverses of the same bank area!!!

This keeps me humble. I'm just a "learner"! Maybe I should go back to crawling on the ground?
 
#23 ·
I start to find blacks when ground temp hits 46 degrees for five days at 4” soil depth. That’s when I start looking and hasn’t failed me yet. Greys will pop in low 50s range and yellows until it reaches 60 degrees after that the ones up will burn up and no more fruiting occurs. The lack of precipitation does concern me this year. We are three inches behind compared to a year ago today in area I hunt and the rain they were calling for yesterday pretty much missed us.
 
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