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Morel teaser


Adawg

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Thanks y'all for the wonderful photos. Really does whet my appetite. I've been hunting and eating morels for over 60 years. The last couple of years have been VERY slim. I'm in southern WV and have found them as early as late March. Might be fun to go over some local/regional names we know them as.

Molly moochers, muggins, moochins, merkles ... what do folks where you're from call them?

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Thanks y'all for the wonderful photos. Really does whet my appetite. I've been hunting and eating morels for over 60 years. The last couple of years have been VERY slim. I'm in southern WV and have found them as early as late March. Might be fun to go over some local/regional names we know them as.

Molly moochers, muggins, moochins, merkles ... what do folks where you're from call them?

Dryland fish, sponges, honeycombs

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Fresh Idaho potatoes are currently available here in PA @ about $0.75/Lb :-)

Evan, that's quite an area you're in. Those are perfect "esculentas"... currently known as Morchella americana... at least for the time being. I'm thinking the blacks will be best down your way about 4/20. Despite the meager harvest last year, as usual I'm up for a trip down to your woods. Sometimes ya get lucky, sometimes ya don't. But it's always fun tryin'.

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Dave, I'm thinking that will be the best weekend. Going fishing the weekend of the 25th, so I won't be around then. Temps are warming up finally, and the forecast is calling for rain most of next week. This might shape up to be a good year after all.

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Evan, I'd like to join you on Saturday 4/18. This day works really well for me. Weather forecast is very encouraging. Alternatively rainy/sunny weather with highs between 57 and 71, and after this weekend no nights below 40. Could be a good year.

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A few hours in the mid to high 20s is not killer. If the ground doesn't freeze solid that's a good sign. 4rum, I think the next few days/nights will be the deciding factor for your black morels. I just checked the forecast for Glenville, WV, and temps look real good for the upcoming week. Plenty of chances for rain. I think a warm sunny day toward the end of the week will really get things going down your way.

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Dave that's the way 'weather channel' has it shaping up. Loads of rain over the next 4 to 5 days, night time lows well above freezing, in the 40's actually.

Any breaks in the rain for at least two hours this week, I'll probably go out looking. I expect to get wet.

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Next weekend is supposed to be sunny and fairly warm. Things could really get going with a weather sequence like this... rain/sun/warm. Just need to avoid those couple of nights when the temps get into the low/mid 20s for an extended period.

I'm hoping that some blacks will begin to appear up here around the 17th. This would be a day or two later than normal (whatever "normal" may mean). So I need to get through about ten days without a hard freeze. In the past several years, the ground temp got up to just about right (~50F), a big rainstorm would come through, and then a strong tailing cold front knocked the temps way down at exactly the wrong time.

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We've had an artic blast in April almost every year for the last 4 years. Not only bad for morels but no cherries, apples, peaches or other fruit to speak of. Cherry trees look pretty spotty this year. They were in heavy bud when it got into the twenties the other day.

I did venture out yesterday. Got a 2 to 3 hour window between rain storms. No morels. The only thing I saw was a bit of witches butter and the orange fungus on my cedar trees in the driveway.

Checked a log and stump for Dryad's Saddle, no sign of it yet. Last years was still laying on the ground at the base of the stump.

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It hasn't been warm enough yet up here to get even buds on trees to fatten up. Critical period for early morels will be 4/18-4/20, assuming we get the warm sunny weather forecast for this upcoming week.

Like you say 4rum, the worst-case scenario seems to be when a warm period gets things ready but a cold snap then freezes the ground. We've had some springs when fruit orchards really took a beatin'. A week of 70-80F in March followed by 15-25F in April stresses all types of deciduous trees. Also, hot dry early spring weather before there's any leaves to filter the sunlight causes forest fires. Up here in PA, during the period 2007-2012, our springs were mainly like this.

So this cool weather that's hanging on up here this year may not be all that bad... as long as the soil temps eventually come up at just the right time and then don't plummet.

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Well I survived another viscious Ontario winter. It looks like spring is running about 2 weeks later than our long term average but if we get some warm weather we can recover some of that. I dont expect to see morels here for another 4-5 weeks and we still have some frost in the ground . I'll start watching the progression maps though keeping in mind that the morel progression moves north at a rate of very roughly 100 miles each week. Here is the map I watch:

http://morelmushroomhunting.com/morel_progression_sightings_map.htm

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Looking at things here in NE PA, we're still 2 weeks from seeing any morels. Ice still covers most of the reservoir, and there's still patches of old snow/ice seen on the north-facing slopes/crags. I think the period 4/19-4/25 will be critical here... need to avoid a hard freeze during this time.

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