July Morel Hunting!

  • dbokman
    Posts: 35
    #205900

    Okay….so the morel harvest season in the entire upper midwest region is in the rearview mirror for 2009. BUT…..July shroom TREE hunting in the upper midwest is in full swing and is as easy as it comes. In late April stretching into early May many of the hardwoods are still cycling through the budding process. Isolating “dead” elm trees & corresponding morchella turf can be difficult even for the trained eye especially at a distance. Attached are a series of pictures very recently snapped of an elm tree I’ve been keeping tabs on. First signs of dutch elm infection were visible in August of 2008, almost one year ago. Limb by limb the leaves went from lucious green fully feathered to shriveled up brown & barron. This past May only a couple major lower branches budded out with leaves. The last of those leaves are brown & shriveled. In another months time they’ll be gone. RIP
    Not all elm trees take a year to actually die once the disease sets in. Some are completely dead in a couple of months (usually smaller trees) and I’ve watched some take as long as 2 and 1/2 years! You guessed it! Bigger trees.

    You can see from the pictures picking out the dead versus the healthy tree limbs in a forest regardless of tree type is easy. Marking the dead or dying trees on a plot map is just as easy. Crazy? Maybe….but this saves me a TON of time in the woods when actually shroom hunting. Next May there is a high probability of shrooms being present under the bony canopy of this “fresh” dead elm. Other factors such as soil type and grade get the thumbs up. This wooded terrain of this location has historically produced respectable numbers of morels as well.

    I also snapped a picture of the trunk depicting the vines using the tree to get verticle. In May or the real deal hunting season most vines bud out with leaves ahead of most trees ~ especially elm trees. Too many would be successful morel hunters are simply fooled by the greenery of the vines and walk right past 3″ morels ~ especially fresh diers with all bark still attached. I’ve guided enough folks in yester years and speak from experience on that one.



    deertracker
    Posts: 9163
    #53790

    That is some good info. You are defintely one with the wood.
    DT

    herefishyfishy
    MN
    Posts: 862
    #53815

    Quote:


    That is some good info. You are defintely one with the wood.
    DT



    Brad Juaire
    Maple Grove, MN
    Posts: 6101
    #53825

    Great insight on Morel Hunting Bosman! I bumped into some morels turking hunting this spring and I said to myself that I should make an effort to find more of them next year!

    Joel Nelson
    Moderator
    Southeast MN
    Posts: 3137
    #53878

    Excellent post Bosman. I’m like you in that I try to keep tabs on certain elm trees during the off-season. At the same time, I’m still not dialed in on what will make certain elm trees better than others. I guess I’m still at the stage where I can find a dead elm tree with the best of them, but locating ones that will produce has always included manually checking each and every one of them multiple times. Maybe that’s just what it takes?

    Joel

    dbokman
    Posts: 35
    #54170

    Quote:


    Excellent post Bosman. I’m like you in that I try to keep tabs on certain elm trees during the off-season. At the same time, I’m still not dialed in on what will make certain elm trees better than others. I guess I’m still at the stage where I can find a dead elm tree with the best of them, but locating ones that will produce has always included manually checking each and every one of them multiple times. Maybe that’s just what it takes?

    Joel


    Trust me Joel. I look under my fair share of elms that seemingly have all the environmental ingreidents to promote morchella growth yet find nothing. I have theories on that but will keep those close to the vest pocket for now.

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