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Morel Question


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I'll be heading to north Louisiana this weekend(Sicily Island Hills WMA) and I've heard of morels being picked there but really no sufficient evidence to back it up. The terrain is really rugged considering its Louisiana. The forest overstory is a mixture of loblolly-shortleaf pine and upland hardwoods. The predominant tree species are magnolia, sweetgum, blackgum, loblolly and shortleaf pine, hickory, elm, ash, white oak, southern red oak, post oak, beech, cherrybark oak, red maple, water oak, and hophornbeam. The understory species includes Vitis sp., deciduous holly, Smilax sp., baccharis, flowering dogwood, rattan, huckleberry, oak leaf hydrangea, buckeye, blackberry, silky camellia, sourwood, downy serviceberry, Crataegus sp., and many other grasses and herbaceous plants , temperatures been in the low 70's to upper 70's for quite some time now. Soils are pretty sandy and all other research points to great morel habitat , I guess. Not even close to being an expert. I'm guessing my main question would be does the elevation have to above a certain number to support morel growth or that refers to the soil temperatures needed to be a certain temperature at a given elevation to find morels?

Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated on other things to look for to bag my first morels this weekend.

Thanks

Daniel

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Tree association and specific morel habitat vary considerably form region to region in NA. But spots with lots of first-year-dead American Elm trees seem to be a good morel habitat anywhere east of the Rockies. My best current spot in PA is a 2-3 acre plot with mostly 20-25 foot tall elms. Every year or two a couple more of these elms die, while others continue to grow. Areas with lots of good morel spots tend to get a lot of picking pressure. So timing is important.

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If you want to check the best time to hunt for morels in any location, take a look at this previous thread: http://www.wildmushroomhunting.org/index.php/topic/326-figuring-out-when-to-look-for-morels/?view=findpost&p=203627&hl=vitog

The 4th post in that thread has the Web address for a site that will calculate the current number of degree days for any location in the US. Approximately 1000 Farenheit degree days (base 32 degrees) should be good for black morels and 1250 for yellows. Of course southern exposures will need fewer, and northern ones more degree days.

Regarding elevation, I find morels at any elevation from treeline to sea level. Of course, elevation affects temperature, which in turn changes the degree day calculations.

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Very interesting vitog!!! Went through the whole tread and received all the answers I was looking for. At first glance it seemed that all those maps were way over my head but as I slowed down a bit and took a deep breath I was able to understand. Lol. Thanks a bunch !!

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Here in NE PA high elevation areas generally have very thin acidic soil, which the morels do not like. But in the southeast, I *think* most morels are found in the mountainous areas where there is some cold weather in winter.

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Sadly I was not able to make any Morchella finds this weekend. I'm guessing it's still pretty early even though I'm in south Louisiana. There were plenty of ash, elm and hickory trees to host them. Also, there was plenty of leaf litter to hide them. To be honest there wasn't much fungi growth to be found other than a few polypores.

On a different note, I'm pretty excited to mention that I contacted the biology program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, through email last week and received a reply !!!

One of the professors wrote back on my concern of not having a group in the area and we are currently discussing the possibility of getting one going. Needless to say I'm one happy camper!!

Feel free to refer anyone on wildmushroomhunting.org, looking for others in south Louisiana area with a passion for mycology

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CajunShroomer, if you manage to get a mushroom club started, then you may want to consider acquiring NAMA (North American Mycological Association) affiliation. There are some requirements for this.

As for the morels, looks like someone in Alabama has found some. But the progression map is still pretty empty.

http://morelmushroomhunting.com/morel_progression_sightings_map.htm

The ones that occur near the dead elms are not an early type. So, I'd say... keep checking!

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Ok Dave, I will definitely do so. I wouldn't want to cause any kind of issues. Thanks

If a group isn't formed and I only get acquainted with others in the area , that'll be just as good to me. It's great being I the woods alone but it's also nice to be able to share with others

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