[cooley]

Pretty much know where to hunt and look for Grays and yellows under elms and ash here in NE Ohio but would like to know thoughts and opinions on where to look for blacks this season I am in Trumbull Co. Flat land my buddy from the southern Ohio says he gets them under ash and poplar and around spice bushes. I also want to look around cottonwoods and sycamores this year for yellows I have never looked around them before and I have some big tooth aspen behind my home anyone ever find morels around them?

 

[buckeyebowman]

This is something I'm interested in as well. This will be my third year hunting and I have never found a black. I'm in Mahoning County, but hunt mostly just over the line in PA at a sportsmen's club I belong to. We have about a million dead elms on the property, and I've found morels under exactly ONE! It's produced about a dozen yellows each of the last 2 years. I find most of my morels under apple trees, which we also have a ton of. I'm going to have to learn to identify ash trees I suppose

As far as blacks go, I don't know. I've read a bunch of morel books and haven't read about any way to pinpoint them. In Michael Kuo's book "Morels", he talks about a fruitless hunt that ended with him finding 2 prime blacks near a red oak, with not an elm, ash, apple, or tulip tree anywhere in sight! They'll pop where they will, and all we can do is go look for them.

BTW, there's a morels seminar at Fin, Feather, Fur in Boardman on the 28th. John Maybrier is doing it and i'm going to go see if I can pick his brains a little about blacks, in particular.

 

[cooley]

Buckeybowman that's morel hunting I guess, ash trees have opposite branching and diamond type pattern of bark. I found morels around them but not a ton of them. The most I ever found under a dead elm was 45. I found 57 last year under tulip tree all small morchella deliciosa. I have some new morel woods I have looked at that I can not wait to look, every tree associated with morels is in this patch, dead elms, ash, old apple trees, big dying cotton woods, tulip poplars and big tooth aspen but as you mention the right trees do not always produce! If you keep looking for the right trees you will eventually find them sometimes putting on a lot of miles.
Keep me posted on your seminar, I'm curious on what he says. I want to start early looking for the blacks this year I seen a picture on here somewhere where a lady had blacks she found in Trumbull Co. So I know the have to grow in the northern counties here in Ohio. I just never got early enough to look for them.

 

[ant]

Ive had my best luck with blacks around Tulip Popler,and Cherrys.But they are my nemesis.They are hard to spot.But if you find a patch they will generally come back in that area year after year.

 

[cooley]

Ant I have found commons around black cherry, some articles I have read said you find blacks around the same trees their later arriving kin pop up at! From what your saying tulip poplar and cherry are good and when you say poplar some identify big tooth aspen with them any truth to that? I have never foun any under aspen.

 

[buckeyebowman]

Last season, on the "Wild Edibles" page of Ohio Game Fishing, a couple of guys from the Cuyahoga Falls/Kent area wrote about finding blacks. I figured why not here? So, I started early and will again this year. Plus, I have some new spots to check.One thing I noticed last year under the one elm tree where I found yellows was this. I must have checked that tree 8 to 10 times. The first few times there was nothing, then a big flush of LBMs which died back, then nothing, and then yellows! After the yellows nothing, and then more LBMs! They seem to come in waves.

 

[cooley]

So buckeyebowman I have also seen those little brown mushrooms around those elms. Your right there here in the northern counties we just have to find them. Lol! Ant and most say they will come up generally in the same spots year after year. Check out this video of theses black beauties http://youtu.be/HZHDduz93bw these guys were in Minnesota!

 

[buckeyebowman]

The stuff dreams are made of! That's not fishing, that's catching! There was one interesting comment made in the latter part of the vid where they found that whole gang in one spot. The one guy called them their "path" morels, and they seemed to find the majority of them right on the edge. I wasted a lot of time my first year beating my way through impenetrable thickets to get to a big, old, long dead elm, only to find nothing. The one elm where I have found morels (the LBM's, Yellows, LBM's tree) is right on the corner of a thicket with open grassy areas on three sides. Same with the apple trees where I found them. I'm beginning to think that might be important.

BTW, I loved the duct tape on the one guy's pants! I guess that's one way to keep thorns out and ticks off!

 

[cooley]

The best elm that produce for me was on a fields edge where the field was sloped down on a grade to the edge where the elm was. I believe the water when it drained from the rain put good moisture there,they where the beer can sized morels huge, I can still remember when i seen the bark slipping off as I approach and look down and seen all of them my heart skipped a beat or two.
I do not think warm weather will be hitting until the 3rd week in April they say ground temps need to be around 50 degrees for them to start popping but if the blacks come earlier then you would think the ground temp would be cooler than 50 degrees. What is your thought on that! My buddy said in years past in April when there was a warm spell they would start to find them and the next day there would be light snow and those blacks would stick out like a sore thumb!

 

[ant]

Snow might make my war on the black morel easier.Damn I can be in a patch and my one buddy who can spot them well will ask me if Im done and Ill say yep and hell come in and pick another dozen.Pees me off.But youve gota get the eye forem!

 

[cooley]

I wonder what the most common black morel that is found in buckeye land morchella angusticeps or morchella septentrionalis.

 

[buckeyebowman]

cooley, I think I have to agree with you. Blacks pop, what?, 2-3 weeks before the yellows do, so it would make sense that the ground temps would be cooler providing the weather doesn't get too goofy! Consider the vid link you posted. If I remember right, those guys were hunting northern Minnesota in early June! It can get damn cold up there, and Summer comes late. What greenery was out wasn't all that extensive,

As far as what species the blacks are here, only God and the scientists know. A few years ago Michael Kuo (www.mushroomexpert.com) initiated something called the MDCP, the Morel Data Collection Project. He asked for specimens to be sent to him from all over North America, which he turned over to a mushroom DNA lab. At that time some people said there were three species, blacks, half-frees, and yellows, period! Other folk had a few more. What Mike and his DNA buddies came up with was 14 species of Morchella! That's interesting, but as long as I can identify them, and they're all delicious, I really don't care. Especially blacks. All I want to do is find one!

ant, your story made me laugh! It reminded me of when I started deer hunting. I went out with someone who knew what they were doing. They tried to point out deer to me, but I couldn't see them! I had to "learn" how to see deer in the woods, and I believe the same is true for morels. My first year hunting was nearly total frustration. I spent a lot of hours out there and found nothing. Then, toward the end of the season, I found that one elm, and I found my first morels! They weren't usable. They were old, over the hill. Dried up and crispy. However, it showed me that I could "look" at a morel and "see" it for what it was. Looking and seeing are two different skills, and that makes all the difference in the world to a newb like I was then!.

 

[cooley]

lol buckeyebowman! They are delicious! Well I'm thinking 2-3 weeks yet before the blacks start popping. It doesn't look like the weather will be warming anytime soon. I will keep checking with my buddies down in southern Ohio and on here! I need to go check a few new spots I have access too and see what kind of trees and habitat are there, I'm getting the cabin fever since hunting went out and the morel itch!!

 

[srashley]

I live in Northwest Ohio. I'm not sure if the same conditions are in the Northeast or not. But around here blacks are scarce. I have looked around here for 15 years and only have one consistent black morel spot. But I find 300-400 every year there. In this area, White ash is the best, but good luck finding any alive! My spot is around Black Cherry, Tulip Tree, and sassafrass. Make sure the soil is dark and rich - a dark, sandy loam is prime. In other parts of the state and in other states they are prevalent. But I have looked all over from northeastern Indiana to Toledo at the same latitude and haven't ever found a black around an aspen here. I also have NEVER found a black around an elm tree. The couple times a dead elm was around a black morel, it was in an area of ash, black cherry, or Tulip trees.

Hope you find em!

 

[cooley]

Srashley you are in Toledo where it is flat for the most part like we are here in NE Ohio. There is something to the black cherry because I here it a lot, we have been fortunate that we do have ash that have been totally destroyed by the emerald bugs but in my area we have too many trees being timbered out! Property owners have the right to make money for selling there timber but the Amish just do not leave anything standing! The dark soil you refer too is In the stand of big tooth aspen behind my home I am going to check it and see what happens. I hear a lot about the aspen being good for blacks in MI, I'm going to start to look under the tulips, ash, black cherry and go from there! I have a feeling I will be putting on a lot of miles to find them this year but I have some great habitat to look in... I need to lose a few lbs. anyway! Much success to you this year too and all the morel brethren!

 

[buckeyebowman]

Srashley, you mention dark, sandy loam. I watch a YouTube vid of a guy hunting blacks in Michigan. He demonstrated how you can identify that type of soil. If you squeeze it in your hand it will form a ball, but if you then work it with your fingers it will crumble apart readily. I haven't run into any of that stuff yet, but will keep my eye out for it. After all, there are plenty of sand and gravel mines in NE OH, so I figure it has to be somewhere!

Went to a morel seminar today, and the speaker said he prefers poplar woods for blacks above all else. So, I'll be on the lookout for those as well.

 

[cotty]

ive found in southeast ohio atleast blacks grow around, mainly poplar, and black cherry trees, i myself prefer the black cherry trees, but thats just me, most of your big patches will be mixed black cherry and tulip poplar trees, some ash, blacks grow im mostly the same areas as yellows, but at the same time the complete opposite if that makes sense, but here in se ohio, the blacks, half frees, and yellows grow all in the same area, never hunted north east ohio so couldnt tell you up there where they grow, but the two main trees i would look for is poplar and black cherry, and you will find that dark sandy loam soil, almost anywhere you find black cherry trees, and poplars.

 

[cooley]

I too have seen that video. I think the reason being is because the the leaves on the poplar tree family decompose very quickly which turn into that rich loamy soil. I know I have never ever found even an old black morel in where the yellows or commons where, now the say the blacks are early and before yellows and overlap each other but I have never been that lucky to find a spot where they do! This year I will be out early enough to look for the blacks first and once again another hunter(cotty) speaks of the black cherry and tulip tree!!

 

[cotty]

i have been watching videos all day everyday getting ready for the season ahead, i have seen many videos on black and also thru experience, they prefere the shady side of the sunny side of the hill, and i say i prefer black cherry trees the most for blacks, because they are more common than tulip poplars in my areas, may not be the same for you where you are, but its just a basic guide to go off i guess, happy hunting and watch out for ticks and falling logs.

 

[cooley]

We do not have hills here cotty but we do have black cherry, tulip and ash I will be looking at early this year.