I've got a lot of shade around here. Wood chips are pretty inexpensive -- assuming that rotting wood is what they like. Has anyone tried this? Any good results? What do you do bout those awful little fungus gnats that put their little maggot-like larva inside the mushroom?

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Answers

I swear I posted on this thread earlier today, in fact I know I did. Is there some reason why it was deleted. I had nothing in there that was offensive, at least not to my knowledge.

Susan

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Susan.........are you sure you pushed the "submit" button?? Joy never deletes anything unless someone asks her to.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

I didn't delete it, Susan. Diane's idea is probably correct -- I think I've done that a few times. Either that, or cyber-gremlins ate it!

So, I'm sure Julie would be interested in what you had to say if you can bear to repost it. Don't you just HATE it when you do a whole long post and something happens to it? I do!

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

I swear I've tryed those mushroom growing kits about 4 times and I wish I could make it work! Nothing happens! not even one itty bitty little shroom. Wish someone would show me what I'm doing wrong. You try it Julie and see what happens.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Susan,

I "TRON'd" the interrupts on my system to better understand how these boards worked. The delays in interrupts and flags may indicate that the submit verification flag that sets the screen is activated when the posting process is initiated, not upon completion. We experienced this on the singletree early on and I had the same problem after establishing the new singletree homepage (but that was caused by tripod and the banners). Sorry I can't be more definitive, but without access to the actual program coding I can only surmise that it was lost due to a timing or buffering glitch since you did recieve the post verification.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Sheeesh...Jay! Was that English you were typing :-)???

I've tried those mushroom kits, too...no luck! I'm waiting to mail-order shittakes from Jay!

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

No I did submit my post because I read it on the thread after I submitted and it was there and free of errors :D Oh well! I just repost it. And for anywho may be curious, no I was not doing shrooms at the time!!!

It can't be done! Morals are are one mushroom that can't be reproduced at will (your will) The growing conditions are such that when someone around here gets if you know where a patch is you keep quiet. Chances of that patch being there next year are pretty slim.

I can tell you if Morals could have been commercially grown the food industry would have done it a long time ago. If you are successful let us know. I don't know where you'd get the spores from.

Susan (I think I better go and walk my woods, yummmmmm!)

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Yes, I did try as a matter of fact but had no luck. Matters went well at first but eventually they slipped into drunken debauchery and the situation just degraded from there. I'm afraid it's just the nature of mushrooms to sink into moral decay...

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

This is going to sound off the wall, but I had morels come up right next to the concrete foundation on a spec house I built back in the 80's. I don't know how they got there, but I think it must have been spores in the backfill, since I backfilled around the foundation with dirt from right next to the house. So it seems to me that maybe you could just dig up some dirt from the area where you've harvested morels in the past? Don't destroy a good morel patch, though, just to TRY to get some to start elsewhere!

Here, the morels come up "on schedule" after a rain, in the right season. But I can't remember what he season is, as I've never gone hunting for them. But I often see a few cars parked off the side of I-5 after a rain, at a known morel area.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Not to answer the question, (don't want to ruin my reputation!) but...

The decline in morel production can be directly attributed to people using plastic sacks while hunting them. I've been preaching at the fellas out here for years on this subject. I think that I'm finally getting them sort of trained! I made them drawstring hunting bags from old sheer curtains from the thrift shop; and I've convinced them to gently tap each shroom on the ground when they pick it, the better to spread the spores around.

Neighbor Mike has promised to bring us enough for a mess - Uncle Ivan is in a cast and Pop is too short of breath to go out and walk the hills and hollers (at least, very far) this year. I can't see the damn things if I'm standing in a patch of them - I think they hear me coming and hide!

I've seen the morel raising kits in several catalogs, but right now I've got other things that I want to waste my money on! I kind of have this weird idea that I appreciate things more when I only get them occasionally - like morels, and fresh peaches right off the tree, watermelon, and yes - those damn strawberries too! (They're blooming, BTW!)

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Yeah, I remember the one kit that said something like "and with some luck, you should have your own secret morel patch!" Yeah, right.

But in doing a google search on the subject, I have come up with some very interesting sites on culturing your own morels at home -- it looks very time consuming, but not unlike work that I did in the plant lab cloning birch trees and orchids in my college days. I could handle it, I think...given some spare time and a fresh morel mushroom, that is.

Apparently they like alder and old leaves to eat. We've got alot of black alder growing around here that periodically gets brushed out, so I am thinking about a chipper and a damp patch out back. This looks like it could become a several-year project, but well worth it if it works!

I also found info on innocculating dead trees on your property with edible/gourmet fungi using a spore infused chainsaw oil! What a concept -- while leaving the standing deadwood for the wildlife, you get a crop out of it too.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

I just came back from the grocery store. They had Dry Morels for almost $10. for about 4-5 of them. That maybe what, an ounce? So does that mean you could charge $160 a pound for the dry and maybe double that for the fresh. WOW!

Susan

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

They sell here for $25/pound.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

I prefer immoral mushrooms, stuffed with escargot and decadently dripping in butter and garlic! :-)

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

Sherri...could define "immoral" mushrooms?? I love the butter and garlic thing, too, but I'll pass on the escargot :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

Immoral mushrooms are the ones that stay out after curfew, drinking and smoking and doing heaven knows what else! :)

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

My goodness, Sherri! I certainly hope we are not describing our early years :-)!!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

The ones that sit around in darkened woods with their friends and smoke college students? :-D

Okay, Julie, did you figure out yet that you spelled it "moral" when it should be "morel"? ;-) Bwa-ha-ha-ha-hah!!!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

I remember eating some immoral mushrooms once. At least, I THINK I remember it....

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

Julie: Here's a trick Chris uses for propogating bolete mushrooms. Something similar might work for morels.

First get a bunch of mushrooms. We foraged ours. Take note of where you found them and the type of habitat and try to replicate it. For boletes we have "made" a forest floor amongst some newly trasplanted red pines. Then we simply cut up the "culls" and spread them around on the "floor". We replenish the floor each year by mulching with additional pine needles, cones, and branches we get from the city compost pile and each years we've picked two or three gallon jars of dried boletes.

Buy the morels or what ever. Get familiar with the type of habitat they prefer. I've heard morels like rotting elm wood and the one time I found them it was near elms. Find a suitable location, moist, shady etc and cut the musrooms up into tiny pieces and spread around at the selected site and wait. Each year ad to the rottable wood waste.

Mushrooms are very sensitive to moisture and temperature conditions so one year you might get alot of them and then next year hardly any.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I remember "magic" mushrooms that were immoral or immortal in high school, not sure , I was halucinating at the time. Saw a basset hound in a top hat and monocal too. Glad I survived that time of my life. Glad the flashbacks dont happen anymore also :>)

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002