Morels in the Backyard,

YES !!

Article from Internet newsgroup: alt.nature.mushrooms. Written by Richard Winder


Step 1: Secure inocculum. Several suppliers frequently mentioned in this newsgroup will provide this for you or you can grow your own. In my case, I selected a very large specimen of Morchella elata, stored it in the refrigerator several days, then aseptically took a small square of the fertile cap tissue and placed it in a Petri dish with malt extract agar at room temperature. Warmth seems to trigger ascospore release — they shoot off and land some distance away. I let the spores germinate and develop thousands of tiny colonies. Then I can avoid the areas contaminated by bacteria. I don’t attempt to get pure, single spore strains, because multi-spore material seems to do better for generating sclerotia, which are supposed to be the primordia for the fruiting bodies. So, I transfer the clean colonies to new agar plates. There are various ways to generate sclerotia for storage until you are ready to inoculate. I used a simpe method: autoclaved puffed wheat brought to 50% moisture in Mason jars with about 1 gm calcium carbonate per jar. The wheat collapses upon autoclaving, so you have to do some recombining, but you can also use culture bags. If you don’t have an autoclave to sterilize your agar and spawn media, you can use a pressure cooker for small amounts.

Step 2: Dig your bed in the Fall. Pick a site that is well-drained, but not prone to completely drying out. I add the following materials: soggy cardboard (about 2 feet down, at bottom), rotten apples, lots of peat moss, clam shells, barbecue ashes, plenty of soil and 1/3 bag hydrated lime (I put in about ). Mix as much as you dare, but try not to leave the apples on top (it attracts animals), and don’t worry about lumps of lime. To finish off, I put some fir branches on top to prevent deer browsing, etc.

Step 3: Inoculate: Slip sclerotia in here and there, covering it over lightly. Make sure that a few of the sclerotia are over apples.

Step 4: Wait and hope! I enjoy hunting for mushrooms. There are a few localities where morels can become abundant here, although the southern part of Vancouver Island doesn’t seem to be rich in morel habitat for a number of reasons. So, I’d have to say that cultivation is a promising alternative. Good Luck!


Return to Table of Contents