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3K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  WKU77 
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View attachment 4408 Hey everybody,

First off, let me say cheers to a good season this year! I have been hunting and eating morels around SW Virginia since 2002. I wanted to spread some information about some ways we can all help to keep our morels coming back season to season and in greater numbers. A great resource is Paul Stamets book Mycelium Running. In the book he shows how we can harvest the mushrooms from the wild and use the very bottom of the stem ( known as the stem-butt) to actually regrow the mycelium onto wet cardboard to create more spawn and then transplant that into the woods or even start your own beds in a garden. I plan on trying this method this season and see how it goes. I will post the directions below:

1. Gather fresh mushrooms
2. Using a knife or scissors, clip off the base of the stem just above where it narrows, keeping the root-like rhizomorphs intact and attached to the stem.
3. Soak cardboard in water until it is fully saturated. Tear off sections to expose corrugations.
4. Place 1 stem butt on the cardboard roughly every 16 square inches, and sandwich them between panels of corrugation.
5. Soak the stem butts and cardboard in water and place in a cardboard box, trunk, old bathtub, sink, or trough, or simply on the ground, and cover with a shallow layer of wood chips.
6. Keep in the shade, with the incubating container on the ground to limit temperature fluctuation.
7. Incubate for 4 to 8 months before transplanting

At this point, you can use each sheet of cardboard as a mycelia like footprint to inoculate and outdoor bed, stacked burlap sacks or straw bales. Or you can place sheets interspersed within a stack of moist newspapers and let the become myceliated over several months. Your imagination is the only limit. However, the mycelium must be moved (transplanted) or it will die.

Hope this inspires some to try this, I really have a deep appreciation for these mushrooms and would love to see them around for our future generations! Good Luck!
Thanks Kurt, sounds like it would work .... may try this!
 
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