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Cold Season NC Oysters


coastwx

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You guys take great pictures (I gotta get a better camera.) I have my eyes out for some oysters here in central NC on a log I cover with a tarp when it's sunny and dry, and I open to rainy weather.

Sunny, same problem here, course that might be considered reasonable caution since I'm a newby.

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coastwx, we're about 25 miles apart. I'm on the Old Stage Rd in Harnett County. What're you using for thhose good pics?

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I've about 5 acres of woods to roam, with about 2 acres prime hardwoods and another acre of mostly poplar. Recently acquired permission to hunt over some woods up your way in Willow Springs. I've made one foray into Raven Rock state park north of Lillington but what I found were many mushroom stumps, whether the result of other hunters or eaten by deer I have no clue.

My winter oysters were buggy, little black beetles which I brushed out.

One ongoing experiment: I wrapped the stumps of some pleurotis in wet paper towels and placed that between an oak log and its loose bark. Lots of white mycellum on the bark. Maybe in the log.

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I'm looking for new spots, but have mostly roamed two parks nearby. To be open, one is Lake Benson in Garner. Nice area of hardwoods with some pine near the lake. There is a new extension built a few years ago called White Deer. It has a greenway that extends several miles away from the main park into Garner. Lots of trails into the woods off the Greenway. There is moutain bike park off Garner road that has lots of trails, but I've yet to investigate much yet. I'm going fishing with a buddy soon at Sharon Harris and plan to look for spots with dense hardwoods around the lake as we're fishing. I've also had thoughts of this long Tobacco Trail from Hyw 64 up to Durham as a good spot.

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Heading from Benson toward Garner on hwy 50, the first right past 42 takes you into a neighborhood I'm familiar with because my deceased mother once lived there. The place is rife with big hardwoods on clay ground rich from earthworn castings. I'd think of that as a good place since you're travelling very close to it anyway. I'm tending the other direction. I have great hopes for the shores of Cape Fear River.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Took another walk through the woods on Sunday. Temperatures here around Raleigh have been up and down. Last week was cool after a warm week prior, so did not anticipate any morels and that was the case, but things may change this week with average lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's. It was interesting that the best mushroom found this weekend was a skitake on my own batch of logs innoculated several years ago.

I did find three fungi with a very odd unknown fungi, so think conditions are ready to turn here in central and eastern NC.

Here is one of the strangest found personally.. ranks up there with the stinkhorn found in the same area last year. It's about as phallic as it gets for a mushroom. Coral mushroom texture with that appears like a pale yellow to red spore bubble on the tip depending on age. Found in mostly oak and poplar hardwoods area.


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My first find of what I suspect is witches butter under a pine.

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These appear to be Ganoderma Lucidum from last season. Will be sure to keep an eye on this log in 2014.

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Here is one of the first normal mushrooms found this spring. Did not take the time to ID, but not anything I'd target for food.
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Definitely an example of a Calostoma species (your photo two posts above, coastwx). C. ravenelii appears to be another possibility, but I'm not familiar with either ravenelii or lutescens. C. cinnabarinum is the one I find around here. The gilled mushrooms looks like Entoloma vernum. I think those polypores are not examples of G. lucidum. Need to see the undersides in order to get a better idea. But Polyporus brumalis is one name that comes to mind.

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Also, forgot to mention. The gilled mushroom looks like something from the Entoloma vernum species complex. Salmon-pink spore print. Often this type is the first truly terrestrial gilled mushroom to appear during spring.

Lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s sounds like morel weather.

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Just a quick update for NC. Took a hike on Fri and Sun after a week of warm spring weather. Some of the other forums indicate morels are popping up now in NC, so really took time while walking through the poplar stands. I could not find any yet. It was not only warm last week, but very dry, so maybe after these two days of heavy rain followed by mild weather will be a trigger.

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Rain, followed by warm sunny weather, at just the right time of spring, is a recipe for a good morel season.

Not sure what types of morels are found in your area, coastwx. Basically, there are three main types, Half-Frees, Blacks, and Grays/Whites/Yellows. In my area the Blacks appear first, in Tulip Poplar woods. A little later they are also found near White Ash. My best spots have both types of trees. Half-Frees are usually next, although some years few or none appear. Same areas as the Blacks. The last type to appear go by a variety of names, Whites, Grays, Yellows, esculentas, deliciosas, Thick-Foots, Merkals, Molly Moochers, Land Fish, Spongies... These are actually several different species. I find them in forested areas, same trees as the blacks, old apple orchards (see thread on Heavy Metals in Fungi), and in areas that have lots of elm trees. Large fruitings often occur near recently dead elm trees.

Soil temperature should be around 50F for the Blacks to start. The Yellows begin when the soil temps are several degrees higher.

If there are other people who hunt morels in your area, this is a good sign... except this also means you may expect competition. Morels are uncommon to rare in some areas. My first 8 years of being a mushroom enthusiast were without a single morel! Eventually, I found some old apple orchards that produced very well. Then, after about 12 years of searching forests each spring, I finally found some spots in my local area. So I would say that morels are not common in my area. The good thing about this is that there is very little competition around here.

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I'm thinking black morel from some of the reports (morels.com) and then yellow. I have seen comments that suggest something similar to your experience... that you have to spend time finding the right areas and they may not be as common around Raleigh as some other areas of the US. This makes me wonder about my spot, but that's part of the fun I guess. From that forum a forger found one last week and then 4 in the same area yesterday, so I'll give this weekend a try and if no luck I'll try a different spot.

Are your typical areas lowlands near streams or more sloping areas. The park I hike has a ravine area that is heavily forested with mainly poplars with some elms, sycamore and a few oaks... mostly sloping grade all the way down to the stream. The other area has a larger stream with wide lowland area with some of that swampy. It's more open with areas dominated by large poplars. Also, when looking around poplars, what is the most likely area? in close proximity to the trunk or do they extend out well away from the tree? Thanks Dave!

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Blacks are mainly found where the aspect is south-facing, and where a slope bottoms out to a flat area. The blacks usually begin right near the slope-bottom and then spread both up the ridge and down into the flat as the season progresses. I don't find many blacks in low-lying wet areas. Open woods that get a lot of sun seem best. They can be very difficult to spot, especially when they're just poking through the leaf litter. I have read that people in the southern Appalachians find blacks near Black Cherry trees. I have not ever seen this where I live.

Yellows in the forest seem to spread around more unpredictably, same areas as blacks but also near hickory trees, sometimes beech. Yellows seem to favor the lower flatter areas. Swampy areas can be productive, but you should look for well-drained "islands" in a wet area. Sometimes I find yellows on forested slopes, usually White Ash in such an area. In some areas yellows are collected near sycamore.

When it comes to the yellows near dead elms, I look for well-drained areas. I haven't found yellows near elm --or apple-- in wet areas. Seems like this type prefers well-drained soil. With the elms, look for trees that have died recently, ones with all the bark still intact. If you're really lucky, you will find an area with lots of elms... both dead and alive. In this type of elm stand a few trees tend to die each year. This type of spot often yields lots of large yellows.

I think one problem in your area is that Tulip Poplar may be the dominant tree type in much of your forest. So the "Tulip Poplar" clue is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Morels associating with a given tree tend to spread out within the root-radius of the tree. But sometimes they spread further than this as the season progresses.

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This is some of the best morel information I've come across Dave. As I read through your tips, specific spots quickly come to mind. In the lowland wet area there are elevated "islands" of drier ground. And, since blacks are the most likely all that's popping now, I'll focus on the areas that level off near the creek, lots of those spots. This will give time to scan closer. Much appreciated.

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Here's a link to a "Mushroom Finds" discussion at Morel Mushroom Hunting. There's a couple posts from NC.

http://www.morelmushroomhunting.net/report/current/mmhc_report_page1.html

Also, some of my best black morel spots are a bit higher up than the creek-bottom. Some ridges bottom out in stages, with slightly elevated flat shelves between the elevation changes. A spot like this often gets more sun than the creek-bottom. Slightly elevated flat areas, especially where a fairly steep slope bottoms out, are good places to hunt.

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One more thing I forgot to mention... Often I find early black morels in areas where there are piles of stones near a ridge-bottom. The stones soak up heat from the day's sunshine. I know a fe different spots where black morels are often found growing from underneath a rock, or between rocks... smallish rocks, 3-10 inch diameter.

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Dave, there are "terrace" levels going down to the creek. There is also an area of stones. Plan on going Fri and Sun. We had 1" of rain on Tue and some more forecasted for Sat, so feeling optimisitc. Maybe even some yellows.

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Next warmup should spread the yellows across the southern mid-Atlantic.

Cold weather here has the morel season on hold. So living vicariously through the NC experience is about as good as it gets for me for these next sever

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good to hear you had some luck this past weekend Dave!

It's evidently going to take me a few years to find productive spots for
morels is this area. I've canvassed my main area.... so many patches
that just seem to scream morel, but zero. I moved to another park that
has side trail that goes off into a lowland area that is almost
exlcusively hardwood with polar the main tree and nothing except a fall
in the mud :-)

Looking at the positives, I literally found a handful of young small oysters with no bugs that will make a good omlete.

And, my shitake logs had a suprise for me last Thu.

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That's something I should do... Shiitake logs. Last weekend I helped out with a cleanup at a local park. A few downed trees were chainsawed and I took home a few oak logs, with the intention of cutting them into firewood. But I should get some Shiitake plugs. Is there time of year when it's best to plug logs?

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