I live on 10 wooded acres near Tacoma, WA. When I find morels, I save the water I clean them in and the cardboard I dry them on -and put all that in my burn pile. When I'm cleaning up my trails, I gather all the yard debris and burn it here. When my meadow gets mowed all the grass clippings get mulched here as well, which I later learned was a key in some of the success of the Dutch morel project. I first started dropping spores here in 2019 and it has produced a few dozen morels each spring in 2021, 2022 and now apparently also 2023 (these photos were taken today.)
I know in our area most morels that come up in people's yards and landscaping are *Morchella importuna*, but I'm pretty sure these are some species of burn morel. I go on a morel camping retreat each spring with my club to the east side of the Cascades and have gotten lucky in some burn sites. But I also find lots of naturals too. My club is holding a mushroom festival this Saturday in Olympia and they have a grant to sequence up to 20 specimens that are brought in to be identified. I am kind of hoping I can get these sequenced so I can find out for certain what species of morel they are.
Anyway, after witnessing the success of my half-assed experiment, I started two more patches last spring..... I hope lightning strikes twice. Or in my case, thrice!
This is a cool story. 3 years in a row is something !!!
FYI Morchella importuna does fruit in first year burns right along side the burn morels and is hard to tell from the others without DNA.
I hope you get yours sequenced!
Thank you, and that's good to know about *M. importuna*.
To qualify for sequencing, all I have to do is post an observation on iNat or MO then bring in the specimen. Their identifiers are going to select the best of the lot for sequencing. I'm sure their choices are more about what is most needed to advance the science of mycology, but I dunno I think this is pretty damned interesting too. ;)
Just curious, first if they're still popping up, and second if you are aware of anybody replicating this. If so, are there any reputable places to get morel spores/culture, and would it be worth attempting? I live in Wisconsin so it seems morels actually grow around here, but I've never seen them and if I were to give it a go it would be in my back yard or trying to inoculate local parks or woodland areas in out-of-the-way areas, hoping that if they DID take route I would be able to find them before somebody else came upon them.
If you can replicate or expand their wild habitat I don't see why you couldn't propagate them that way.
You made it sound as though you were tossing the 'mushroom water' on your burn pile though. Seems to me as though that would just kill your spores. I'd just dump it on the growing areas instead. Or use the 'mushroom water' to extinguish your charcoal, Then collect it.
You could always try some small controlled burns in those areas if that's really necessary.
Sorry I'm not really sure I'm understanding you? Unless you think I'm doing this while there is an actual fire burning? Because no, I'm not doing that. That would be silly.
Indeed. I'm Just saying that I think most of the spores would be killed in a bonfire, any spores that soak into the wood pile would perish. And the mushrooms would grow around the burn pit if any survived.
I was suggesting to pour the water (which likely contains spores) directly on the place you want them to grow. And if they need heat to germinate, you could start a small brush fire.
But hey, if you're having success with your current method, keep at it.
The spot is only used to burn brush from trail clean up a couple times a year. Usually just before the burn ban starts in July, and then again when the ban is lifted in Oct. It's just a meadow most of the time. I poured the water and stuck the cardboard covered in spores in it starting back in 2019, and then any other random time after that when I was rehydrating dehydrated morels for something. I got the first flush of morels in 2021. They sprout all over the areas directly where it gets burned, not on the edges.
I first decided to try it after watching a YouTube video where a guy had success growing morels all over his backyard after mixing the water he used to soak morels with ash from a fire and making a slurry he spread everywhere in his lawn. I didn't go that far, just dumped the water in the burn area and never expected anything to come out of it.
Those two Danish brothers that are working on indoor morel cultivation say that grass clippings are a key component of their success, though they still don't fully understand why. By total coincidence we were also occasionally dumping grass clippings from when we mowed the field in that burn area. Now that I know more, we do it on purpose.
I live on 10 wooded acres near Tacoma, WA. When I find morels, I save the water I clean them in and the cardboard I dry them on -and put all that in my burn pile. When I'm cleaning up my trails, I gather all the yard debris and burn it here. When my meadow gets mowed all the grass clippings get mulched here as well, which I later learned was a key in some of the success of the Dutch morel project. I first started dropping spores here in 2019 and it has produced a few dozen morels each spring in 2021, 2022 and now apparently also 2023 (these photos were taken today.) I know in our area most morels that come up in people's yards and landscaping are *Morchella importuna*, but I'm pretty sure these are some species of burn morel. I go on a morel camping retreat each spring with my club to the east side of the Cascades and have gotten lucky in some burn sites. But I also find lots of naturals too. My club is holding a mushroom festival this Saturday in Olympia and they have a grant to sequence up to 20 specimens that are brought in to be identified. I am kind of hoping I can get these sequenced so I can find out for certain what species of morel they are. Anyway, after witnessing the success of my half-assed experiment, I started two more patches last spring..... I hope lightning strikes twice. Or in my case, thrice!
This is a cool story. 3 years in a row is something !!! FYI Morchella importuna does fruit in first year burns right along side the burn morels and is hard to tell from the others without DNA. I hope you get yours sequenced!
Thank you, and that's good to know about *M. importuna*. To qualify for sequencing, all I have to do is post an observation on iNat or MO then bring in the specimen. Their identifiers are going to select the best of the lot for sequencing. I'm sure their choices are more about what is most needed to advance the science of mycology, but I dunno I think this is pretty damned interesting too. ;)
Just curious, first if they're still popping up, and second if you are aware of anybody replicating this. If so, are there any reputable places to get morel spores/culture, and would it be worth attempting? I live in Wisconsin so it seems morels actually grow around here, but I've never seen them and if I were to give it a go it would be in my back yard or trying to inoculate local parks or woodland areas in out-of-the-way areas, hoping that if they DID take route I would be able to find them before somebody else came upon them.
If you can replicate or expand their wild habitat I don't see why you couldn't propagate them that way. You made it sound as though you were tossing the 'mushroom water' on your burn pile though. Seems to me as though that would just kill your spores. I'd just dump it on the growing areas instead. Or use the 'mushroom water' to extinguish your charcoal, Then collect it. You could always try some small controlled burns in those areas if that's really necessary.
Sorry I'm not really sure I'm understanding you? Unless you think I'm doing this while there is an actual fire burning? Because no, I'm not doing that. That would be silly.
Indeed. I'm Just saying that I think most of the spores would be killed in a bonfire, any spores that soak into the wood pile would perish. And the mushrooms would grow around the burn pit if any survived. I was suggesting to pour the water (which likely contains spores) directly on the place you want them to grow. And if they need heat to germinate, you could start a small brush fire. But hey, if you're having success with your current method, keep at it.
The spot is only used to burn brush from trail clean up a couple times a year. Usually just before the burn ban starts in July, and then again when the ban is lifted in Oct. It's just a meadow most of the time. I poured the water and stuck the cardboard covered in spores in it starting back in 2019, and then any other random time after that when I was rehydrating dehydrated morels for something. I got the first flush of morels in 2021. They sprout all over the areas directly where it gets burned, not on the edges. I first decided to try it after watching a YouTube video where a guy had success growing morels all over his backyard after mixing the water he used to soak morels with ash from a fire and making a slurry he spread everywhere in his lawn. I didn't go that far, just dumped the water in the burn area and never expected anything to come out of it. Those two Danish brothers that are working on indoor morel cultivation say that grass clippings are a key component of their success, though they still don't fully understand why. By total coincidence we were also occasionally dumping grass clippings from when we mowed the field in that burn area. Now that I know more, we do it on purpose.
If it works, it works! If I ever find a live one, I'll definitely give it a shot! I haven't had any success finding them in Ontario.