Overpicking

Pick em!

 

pick em man, the honey hole wont go far from that area, may move a bit with the trees but never fear, by the time you find your shrooms, the ones there already done what they need to do for next years crops, they start sporing out as soon as they come up, pick all you can find and look look some more, you aint gonna kill your honey hole, when its a done spot its a done spot wont matter if you leave ten thousand shrooms still there, when the mycellium says its done the patch will be gone

 

Amen cotty! When that relationship between tree and morels die it's done! Go find new spot. Through the thorn I say!!

 

Same here lol I picked them all but the ones that were to far gone... made out like a bandit. How many did you find lagerhead?

 

just be sure to pick em right... pinch or cut the stems, don't pull them up.

 

Not picking them all is like leaving apples on a tree so it can repopulate itself. Pick them. Morels aren't going to disappear because people harvest the ones they find.

 

The fungus only fruits (i.e. produces a "mushroom") when the underground morchella is starved for food and needs to find a new home. While this may take several years, eventually no new fruit will be produced in that area. The spores are so small and light they are carried far away by the slightest breeze. They do not drop in the same area - as that would defeat the purposes of moving to a new location with better nutrients. There is no need to save some for future generations in that spot. The spores are generally released very early and likely long before they are spotted by you. They fungus does however grow bigger over a five to ten day time frame - depending on temperature, moisture, etc. So you can skip the smaller ones and come back in a few days when they are bigger. :-D
At least this is what I have read from books by mycophagist. Your experience may differ.