The 5 conditions that mushrooms need

Shroomhawk, you have never checked a newly dead cottonwood? My deal with elms is once the bark is mostly gone the chances of a big flush are usually gone. You may find a few, but miss the chance at the mother load tree. But sounds like your experience is different.

 

Some of my biggest hauls have come from cottonwoods that have been struck by lightning. Haven't seen many shrooms around trees that are long since dead. But this year has been my worst ever, so I'm speaking out of turn anyhow. I found 2 today in an hour. Not 2 lbs...2 shrooms. Done looking inside city limits. Ten hours out this year, less than 100 shrooms so far. Guess it goes to show you never know as much as you think you do. Always something else to learn.

 

I'll have to keep better watch on the cottonwoods. My point was that the symbiotic relationship theory between morels and elm ROOTS does not explain the bumper crops I have found when the tree falls and rolls far from the stump.

 

schroomhawk, yeah your experience I think is an outlier. Sometimes they grow where they grow. I do believe they have some connection with the roots, I have picked veins of morels running out from elms along the root system. But I have also picked them under burnt cedar and in a plowed field. So you finding them around old rotten logs is no surprise. Makes it more fun to. I hope to pick some this weekend, on elms mostly, but I will probably find a few in strange places.

 

Catfish I'm doing an average year but my honey holes have been sparse to bad and it's been weird. Lower areas popped before higher areas. Oak litter with elm hitting better than elm. Cottonwood litter popping smaller shrooms. Fence and timber lines just started popping. My luck has been in changing my entry point and not following my normal routes. A week ago I went in and followed my 25 year routine an hour in I found 3. I regrouped and headed back by pretending I didn't know the layout and headed back in a straight line and it took 2.5 hours because I found a 5# honey hole in heavy oak litter. So I now just zen out and ignore my knowledge of seasonal progression and I'm doing better than I was before a week ago! Try trusting your eyes and having faith and hope you have a great weekend