Morels have a symbiotic relationship with the plant that they grow with. Most often elm trees.
The colony can live a long time. Depending on the species of morels 100 years, you know like as long as a tree will live. During this time they store nutrients in what is commonly called a truffle, mycologists call that a sclerotia. It’s essentially a knot of mycelium packed full of nutrients, that they will fruit out of once they are separated from their food source, i.e. the tree.
Areas that have been hit by Dutch elm disease end up seeing a lot of morels fruiting, because a lot of trees are dying. Additionally morels like to fruit when the ground temperature is around 50 to 60°. Usually this will be on a south facing hill early in the spring if you are in the northern equator. As well as areas not getting so much direct sunlight later on in the spring.
Aside from that, like all mushrooms they enjoy fruiting after a rainfall. So the best time to look for them is when the ground temperature is 50 to 60°, it’s just rained, and the best place to look for them is in areas with lots of elm trees. Especially elms that are dying from Dutch elm.
That is really interesting! Thank you for all the information! This is a lot more advice than they’ve ever given. I wonder if it’s sort of instinctive on their part since they’ve been doing it since they were kids?
I was thinking about this more just now. I know you use weed for medical reasons. Do you ever get hypnagogic images off it when you close your eyes?
I believe this is the cerebral cortex teaching itself how to see things. I get it a lot when I fall into a porn hole or spend a lot of time staring at mushrooms. I think it’s dopamine reinforcement and neuroplasticity, essentially.
Anyway, you can teach yourself to spot them, is what I’m saying. Smoke a bowl, watch some videos online of people hunting them. Preferably a lot of in nature shots so your brain is learning to see them in the right context. When you start to lose interest, pause a good shot and allow yourself to relax and fall into your breathing. If you do this enough, I bet you’ll start to see morels when you close your eyes before bed.
And when you get out to look for them, they’ll be much easier to spot if you allow yourself to again relax and fall into your breathing and sort of trust your muscle memory.
The weed is optional for anyone else reading. But it does have action on dopamine and can give some people mild closed eye visuals, which helps to verify the experiment.
That does make sense, although I use cannabis medicinally and at this point, it mostly just works as a pain modifier. I basically don’t feel high anymore unless I use a ton of the stuff.
What I really need to do is convince someone to take me with them next year.
We have ‘muscle memory’ in our visual cortex as well. So, we can train ourselves to spot stuff that is normally pretty difficult to spot with practice.
The morels being brown, and fruiting in leaves from last fall, it makes them pretty difficult to see.
Aside from that, they probably have a good idea of what spots to hit because they’ve been hitting those spots for years. As well as a understanding of good conditions to look for them, without having the knowledge of those conditions that I just gave.
And… Mushroom foragers are usually pretty sketchy about giving up their good spots.
Morels have a symbiotic relationship with the plant that they grow with. Most often elm trees.
The colony can live a long time. Depending on the species of morels 100 years, you know like as long as a tree will live. During this time they store nutrients in what is commonly called a truffle, mycologists call that a sclerotia. It’s essentially a knot of mycelium packed full of nutrients, that they will fruit out of once they are separated from their food source, i.e. the tree.
Areas that have been hit by Dutch elm disease end up seeing a lot of morels fruiting, because a lot of trees are dying. Additionally morels like to fruit when the ground temperature is around 50 to 60°. Usually this will be on a south facing hill early in the spring if you are in the northern equator. As well as areas not getting so much direct sunlight later on in the spring.
Aside from that, like all mushrooms they enjoy fruiting after a rainfall. So the best time to look for them is when the ground temperature is 50 to 60°, it’s just rained, and the best place to look for them is in areas with lots of elm trees. Especially elms that are dying from Dutch elm.
That is really interesting! Thank you for all the information! This is a lot more advice than they’ve ever given. I wonder if it’s sort of instinctive on their part since they’ve been doing it since they were kids?
I was thinking about this more just now. I know you use weed for medical reasons. Do you ever get hypnagogic images off it when you close your eyes?
I believe this is the cerebral cortex teaching itself how to see things. I get it a lot when I fall into a porn hole or spend a lot of time staring at mushrooms. I think it’s dopamine reinforcement and neuroplasticity, essentially.
Anyway, you can teach yourself to spot them, is what I’m saying. Smoke a bowl, watch some videos online of people hunting them. Preferably a lot of in nature shots so your brain is learning to see them in the right context. When you start to lose interest, pause a good shot and allow yourself to relax and fall into your breathing. If you do this enough, I bet you’ll start to see morels when you close your eyes before bed.
And when you get out to look for them, they’ll be much easier to spot if you allow yourself to again relax and fall into your breathing and sort of trust your muscle memory.
The weed is optional for anyone else reading. But it does have action on dopamine and can give some people mild closed eye visuals, which helps to verify the experiment.
That does make sense, although I use cannabis medicinally and at this point, it mostly just works as a pain modifier. I basically don’t feel high anymore unless I use a ton of the stuff.
What I really need to do is convince someone to take me with them next year.
You can skip the cannabis.
But yeah, having someone take you is the best way.
Likely.
We have ‘muscle memory’ in our visual cortex as well. So, we can train ourselves to spot stuff that is normally pretty difficult to spot with practice.
The morels being brown, and fruiting in leaves from last fall, it makes them pretty difficult to see.
Aside from that, they probably have a good idea of what spots to hit because they’ve been hitting those spots for years. As well as a understanding of good conditions to look for them, without having the knowledge of those conditions that I just gave.
And… Mushroom foragers are usually pretty sketchy about giving up their good spots.