My hunting property is very fungus friendly and I always find ten to twenty pounds on that 30 acre plot of land. But my brother and I got into a debate a few years ago. He said that morels can not be grown on purpose year after year. Bla bla bla and the urban gardeners on YouTube are full of it. So I set out to prove him wrong.
Like every other living thing, if you give it what it wants it will grow.
The property we live on isn't exactly fungus friendly. Every little corner gets some direct sunlight, so along the southern side of my fence I built a little overhang a foot above the ground that hangs out three foot and covered it with camo netting. That area gets great shade in the afternoon. But gets about 3 hours of direct morning sun. The camo netting shades it just like tree leaves. I'll post pictures of the setup sometime soon.
I took a pound of fresh morels from multiple locations (for greater genetic diversity) let them sit in my slurry for 4 hours. Making the slurry was about the simplest part of the process. I took five gallons of rainwater mixed in 5 tablespoons of molasses and 1 teaspoon of salt. The salt is supposed to control the growth of bacteria that would otherwise eat the protine rich spores.
Bring your rainwater to a boil then let it cool. Once it's cooled add your mushrooms. Let sit for four hours. After that I mashed up the mushrooms and mixed them in hopes of not only giving the spores more food but also maybe adding a few more spores to the mix. The site I originally got the mix from said to pull the mushrooms after four hours and let it sit in a dark warm corner of your house for 24 to 48 hours so the spores can germinate. Then pour it about 4 weeks before mushroom hunting season. I poured mine in early May cause that was when the argument between my brother and I happened.
I only let the slurry sit for 24 hours before pouring.
There are a variety of sites with different ingredients and ratios for the slurry. But I haven't tested them all. One thing they all agree on is that you don't want to let your spores sit for more than 48 hours as the oxygen in the water will be used up and turn it into an anerobic environment. Killing your spores.
In retrospect I should have collected some soil from where I picked the morels and tested the ph. But didn't. Might do that this year so I can better prepare the soil here at home. They say that the roots (is that the proper word?) of a morel can live for a decade so ya don't have to pour a slurry every year. All the sites say that it can take up to five years for them to finally grow. Didn't take that long for me so I guess your milage will vary.
I've always been told that they love the dead roots and leaves from elm trees so that's why I buried those branches.
If they don't start getting bigger within the next year or so I might compost straight elm leaves and branches. Then try it all again.
Y'all are a lot more experienced with gardening than I am. So I reckon y'all know about using vinegar and baking soda to check ph. The site listed below details how to do it for those that don't already know.
http://preparednessmama.com/testing-your-soil-ph-without-a-kit/
