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Morels in Northeast Pa


RAU

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Hi all, I'm new here. I've never found a morel in my life but I'm determined to this spring. I've gotten pretty good at fall mushrooms. Hens or sheep heads as we all call them here and chickenmushroom And even some some chanterelles and shaggy manes too. I'm in luzerne county but spend a lot of time in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties too. Anyone have any tips specific to my area that aren't mainstream info they'd want to share?

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  • 2 weeks later...

When people know where to find Morels, they are usually pretty tight lipped. All I can tell you from the one time I've found them is that at first glance I thought I saw some shrivled up leaves on top of some pine needles. There was something slightly off about it so I took a closer look. Sure enough, I had just come across two Morels growing in the back yard of my 1/2 acre lot. This is the only time I found a Morel and it was after wandering the woods for a couple of hours to turn up nothing. Hopefully someone can pass on some good knowledge for you soon. Spring is coming and as it warms up you'll start to see more people posting. Until then, this is a good time to read up or browse your field guide :-)

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Hi RAU. There are indeed morels here in NE PA, they're just not easy to find.

Old apple orchards have some yellow morels in May. But I'd recommend testing the soil for lead content before eating morels found in an orchard, especially if the orchard is a large one where apples were a major cash crop. In some such places a pesticide --lead arsenate-- had been used for many years. There are a few large old apple orchards in the eastern US that are badly polluted. I get morels in a few small orchards --5 to 10 acres-- and I have noted favorable results when I tested for lead. But if you're lucky enough to find an orchard that produces a lot of morels, I think you probably should get a lead test kit. You could dehydrate the mushrooms and save them. 

Luzerne County doesn't have a lot of elm trees, but there are areas in Susquehanna County, and probably also in Wyoming Co, with elms. There's quite a few elms along I-81 through Susquehanna Co. But, I'd advise against collecting edibles along a busy interstate; you probably want to be at least 30 yards from an interstate. I always feel safer beyond a small barrier like a row of trees or a small hill. If you find elms, then check around the ones that have recently died. Dead ones with the bark still intact is a good bet. 

Morels are also sometimes found locally in forested areas. Look for open sunny woods with mature Tulip Poplar and/or White Ash... well, actually a lot of the Ash has been killed off these past 10 years... Emerald Ash Borer. But there's still some areas here and there with White Ash. 

We have a mushroom club in Luzerne County, Wyoming Valley Mushroom Club. We will begin 2018 meetings on the second Thursday of April (4/12). We meet on the Nanticoke Campus of LCCC, each second Thursday of the month April through December. A non-member is invited to attend two meeting before we ask that they make a decision whether or not to join. We have monthly forays in public areas. Also, there is a Wyoming Valley Mushroom Club facebook page. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, great tip Staveshaver. I've spent most of my morel seasons working overtime but not this year. Gonna do some scouting today. Always looking for Elms but now I'm adding Hawthorn. A friend of mine had a big year last year finding them at the base of crab apples. I'll have to ask him about Hawthorns. 

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Bobby, these were older Hawthorns but healthy. I didn't see any that were dying. There were a few old and dying apple trees at either end of this stand of trees, at least 200 yards between the apple trees, and yes there were a few Morels under the apple trees too, but most of the rest of the trees were Hawthorn and there were morels under many of them. Unfortunately, I was there a little too late and most of the morels were past their prime, but I'll be ready this year. Good luck.

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  • 1 month later...

Got my first ones of the year today. This is one of the latest "first ones" dates in my experience. Black morels, likely Morchella angusticpeps, but I'll scope the spores just in case these may be the M. septentrionalis. 

5ae3d7828ecc7_MorchellaangusticepsRG4-272.thumb.JPG.1287fdcd0830873945684d430b82e010.JPG

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Another down year for this species (Morchella angusticeps) here in NE PA. My spot in Luzerne County produced a total of 5 (that I saw). I think the late start to spring and the lingering marginal soil temps (50F +-3 for about 2 weeks) held them back. But the loss of most of the white ash trees in this spot certainly means that I'll never see as many as I had back about 10 years ago. 

Raining here today and temps are supposed to stay at about normal for awhile. I think it'll be a good couple of weeks for the yellows... M. americana, M.diminutiva. 

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I have found large yellow morels near dead ash trees. But virtually all of the black morels I have found near ash trees have been under trees that appear to be healthy. Now it may be that the really nice black morel fruitings I was finding 7-12 years ago were in response to the trees being attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer. Maybe these trees were stressed at that time but had not yet begun to show obvious signs.

Species of Morchella that form associations with living trees respond to the trees being stressed/compromised/killed by producing above average numbers of mushrooms. In the case of elm trees, the tree dies suddenly and the following year there is likely to be a significant flush. The second year... maybe only a few mushrooms. Third year... probably none. The "Fire Morels" found in burnt pine forests of western NA seem to work the same way. Large flushes first spring after the fire. In the case of apple trees, a tree may die off in parts over the course of many years. Some of the roots of a partly dead apple tree seem to continue to function --as evidenced by part of the crown being dead and another part continuing to leaf out. Morels under such a tree seem to respond to this annual sequence of "partial death" of the tree by putting out a few mushrooms each year. If the tree finally dies completely a large number of morels may be found. There's an apple tree I know where I started finding morels in 1994, a few each year while the tree was in decline. Eventually, the tree died and fell over, and I got a few more morels than usual that one spring, some nice big ones. But, apparently the tree had not died completely. After a few years of no morels at this site, one small live shoot began growing from a large semi-expose tree root that apparently had not died. For the past 3 years I have found morels at this site. 

Not sure how this carries over to the ash trees. There are several species of morel that I have found under ash... M. americana (large NA yellows formerly called M. esculenta), M. diminutiva (smallish "forest morels"), and M. angusticeps (eastern NA black morel). The blacks and small yellows seemed to tail off first. then there was a 2-3 year period when large yellows appeared in the same area, under ash. Now that most of the ash trees have been completely dead for a few years, I don't expect to find morels near these trees. The very few ash trees that seem to be hanging on to life...? I'm trying to pay attention to these trees when I visit my local spot. 

Confounding this situation are... annually different springtime weather patterns and cyclic reproductive patterns of the Morchella fungi that are not well understood. These factors --among possibly others-- affect the annually variable fruiting of morel mushrooms. 

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Thanks guys. Yesterday under an apple tree near my cinco de mayo elm I got fooled by what appears to be Verpa conica. There were 2.  As described by Kuo, they had small thimble shaped caps that twisted off and their stems had a cottony material in the center. Not much left to the cap in the photo.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got some!! They're a little bit past prime but freshened right up in the frying pan!! Delicious!! Found Around apple trees

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This past 10 days have finally been pretty good. Not much found in the local tulip poplar forest. But I had a few decent forays in spots with old apple trees or dying elms. 

May 9 was my first trip to my best elm spot. Not as many morels as previous years. Some of the elms have been logged/removed. There's still a few big live trees, so I think there'll be a few more good years when these elms die off. Also found a few half-frees in the area (Morchella puctipes).   5b004bd96b348_Morels5-9.thumb.JPG.e5df60c2624875bff27ecf86795410fd.JPG

Went back to the elm spot 5 days later. There's a type that grows there that I think may be a species other than M. americana (current name for the Classic North American Yellow Morel). I've been calling them M. ulmaria, but this may be a misapplication of a name of a somewhat rare blond morel.   5b004c852c0e0_MorchellaulmariaDnvl5-141.thumb.JPG.a13509641e0c9d6ca38a974bcaf01568.JPG

The best forays this year were in spots with old apple trees. I have tested the soil in these spots for lead content, and there were no "red flags", so I believe these areas had not been subjected to the massive application of the pesticide lead-arsenate; outlawed in the 1960s, but had been routinely used in commercial apple orchards for about 100 years. 5b004c2d4a29a_MorelsandWineCaps5-15.thumb.JPG.cc4fcf6d1ca27200b1453a5b33398a19.JPG5b004cdd773b4_MorchellaamericanaRBR5-17.thumb.JPG.79d22d215b8eb89356126e87a4f1bd9c.JPG

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice ones, Dave. I didn't do too well here in western Pa on morels this year. I was busy when I should have been out there and by they time I got there, they were too far gone. I found about 30 morels total around apple trees, hawthorn and elm.

 

I did find some nice Sulfur Shelf, first one I've found in the spring, and it was in perfect condition. The most tender Sulfur I've ever eaten. Found some Dryad's Saddle and Crown tipped corals too. We're getting lots of rain now, should be something growing in a few days.

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