Morels, Can You Grow Your Own?
The seed catalogues are arriving, and one of them in my mailbox, www.dominion-seed-house.com is offering a morel spawn kit at $40. I have heard of specialist offerings for $20.
Do these kits work? Who has tried them? What do you think?
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I've heard that they do well where an Ash tree has grown and since died...
So grow an Ash for 35 years, kill it and you have a 50/50 shot of getting some morels :)
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re: babaoriley7
Caroline1
Jan 17, 2008 08:53 AM
Actually, according to the information given on the website I posted above (http://www.arrowweb.com/MUSHROOM/MHK.HTM) the only critical requirement to grow morels successfully is a climate that has a marked delineation between winter and summer. And they only require a fairly small plot. But the crop is best the second year, then diminshes annually for something like thirty(?) years.. All for thirty bucks, plus shipping! How many fresh morels can you buy for that?
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I've had great luck with the mushroom spawn from Fungi Perfecti - huge dinner plate size shitakis, and delicious Chicken of the woods. I've grown mine from plug spawn, but they have some kits that would be easy to try. I think morels may take up to two years to produce, but you don't have to 'do' much with them, so it's an easy experiment.
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scuzzo
Jan 16, 2008 10:47 AM
I think morels require some really specific growing conditions. They are such a wonderful treat though. I'm often tempted to try one of those growing kits. Here's a thought...if they were easy to grow, then they wouldn't be so darn expensive to buy.
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Bat Guano
Jan 16, 2008 08:52 AM
I grew shiitakes from one of those kits once, but don't know about morels.
If you do try it, be patient; I followed the instructions on the shiitake kit and only got a few small mushrooms. Stashed the thing in the garage and forgot about it for several months, then ran across it one day with a huge crop of delicious shiitakes growing out of it!
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I don't know about growing your own because the conditions have to be perfect. Really hot then coolish then hot again, etc. But last summer husband and I dicovered them coming up in our backyard. We were thrilled! To add to our stash we went for a walk in the woods and found pockets of them there. Not sure why they were coming up in our yard, but we are very shaded.
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rainbowbrown
Jan 16, 2008 07:55 AM
I grew portobellos from a kit I purchased at a mycology fair once. They did great. Morels though...sounds risky. I don't think I would try it, especially not for $40.
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hannaone
Jan 16, 2008 07:07 AM
I'm not sure if you can or not but this link, and a couple links in the page may be of interest.
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/organics/Farming/AgDemos/MushroomFarm.htmand here is a link to books about mushroom growing
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Good luck. I've never heard of anyone successfully growing morels but I'd be thrilled to hear it is possible. You'd figure that if it were possible to grow them commercially they would be more widely available in stores. Let us know if you get it (and especially if it works!).
