A couple years back I went through a rather involved process to try to collect the spore. I gathered some morels and set them on a table between two clean window panes that I had. Then I placed a small light bulb under the panes. Within a day or two, some of the mushrooms had produced spores, evidence by the "clouds" of haze on the glass near the morels. I prepared petri dishes with agar and swapped some of the spores into the center of each dish, put the top on, sealed with tape, and set aside. I can't remember how long it took, but after a while, several of my dishes began to grow the beginnings of mycellium colonies. Got some ryegrass seed, soaked that with water and a little gypsum, and then processed mason jars with half of the soaked seeds in a pressure cooker to sterilize (and kill the seeds). Then cut the successfully grown agar from the petri dishes into pieces and planted 3 pieces each in the ryegrass seed mix jars, covered with a lid with a hole poked in the middle and stuffed with pillow batting to act as a filter, and set that aside in a dark place. After a few weeks, a few of those mason jars were showing the tendrils of mycellium growth. But after that I couldn't figure out how to prepare some beds to throw the colonized ryegrass into, and ended up throwing them all in the compost. Hmmm. I wonder if some of my experiment ended up in the hoophouse....

It is possible to mistake false morels, which are potentially toxic, for the edible ones. If you cut a true morel in half it will be hollow inside. A google search should yield some examples of both so that you can compare. Morels are one of the easier mushrooms to identify but it really is important to be sure before you eat any wild mushroom. If you want to post a picture try opening a free photobucket account. When you upload images it should give you an html code below the image that you can include in a post.

Oh, Kathy, yes Ma'am! I would love Diane to start me a Rose D'Or! The Gardenia rose is really growing. It has three 7 ft. long branches now. I am going to get a cattle panel at the farm center to build me an arch for it. I will set sturdy posts on the four corners and hope that supports the lovely monster. I can't wait for it to bloom. The other roses you guys sent me cuttings of are growing really well too. Unbelievably, they all rooted and bloomed last year - the first year! Poor little things had big blooms but were only 8-12 inches tall. Kathy, I can send you some lilac plants to try. Plant them where they have room to grow. They fast moderately fast and eventually can reach up to ten feet, unless you keep them cut back. They bloom on new wood, so after they finish blooming, cut them back immediately, else you will not have blooms the next year. The bushes spread, but not rampantly. The blooms are up to ten inch bouquets on the tip of each branch. So, more branches, more blooms! I give mine manure feedings each summer and then give them a dose of wood ashes (or potash) in late winter or early spring to encourage blooms. They don't require watering (after they become established the first year) unless there is a drought. I throw the dog poo under mine and they seem to like it. Good use for dog poo. :) They can be trimmed up into a small tree. There is no other fragrance like a lilac, so I cannot compare it to anything else, but it is super sweet and unforgettable. Monarchs love them and will frequent them and lay their eggs on or near them. Many other butterflies love them as well. They are a favorite perch for colorful birds. I don't know what variety of cherry my trees are. They grow into either small trees or large bushes - about ten-fifteen ft. tall. The cherries are tiny, bright red and sour. They make great jam, but too little for pies, since they are mostly seed. The darned Cardinals eat them faster than I can pick them. The birds even eat the blooms, darn them! They are snow white and right now humming with honey bees. They make lots of little trees around them. I keep digging them up and moving them over. Maybe if I get enough of them, I will have enough cherries for me AND the birds to share. :) Thinman, the locals around here are all a twitter right now with "shroom hunting"...and target practice. :( Oh, boy. I found a lot of Morels last year and one was as big as a grapefruit, I kid you not. Up in Tulsa, they have several grassroots groups (friends) who meet every spring and go out on hunts. I think that would be fun, but could be dangerous if every spies the same mushroom and dives for it. People might even go ballistic on you. Aaaaa! I found several disturbed places up in the woods, so think the deer beat me to them. Blast it! Oh well, they NEED them more than I do. I just WANT them. ~Annie

Being stuck in the Big Big City, I don't get to venture out nearly as much as I'd like. In college, my plant ecology class took a field trip to Crowley's Ridge in Eastern Arkansas. It must've been late March, just as most of the forest trees were starting to leaf out. We came across a HUGE patch of morels, and 10 of us picked for 30 minutes. This was growing in a wetter area of an upland region. Since then, I've only come across the occasional morel, never more than a few. I've asked folks who have a knack for finding them. I was told bottomland and the 1st terrace, usually sugarberry/hackberry, sycamore, and wet oaks. Now, I'm not talking swamp, but places that get overflow from creeks during high water, and often have soggy ground. These rains might make them explode. I figure between now and the next couple of weeks would be about right at finding them. Incidentally, harvesting the "fruiting bodies" of mushrooms has no impact on the population. The vast majority of the fungus is underground doing its decomposition job, and will be ready, willing, and able to make more 'shrooms the next year. Of course, it would be good to leave a few mushrooms to put out new spores for the winds to whisk around, but picking them generally has no effect on the established colonies. I have seen mushroom kits for morels. I have no idea how hard it is to have any success with these. It's easy to grow fungus (just leave any food out and you'll get all kinds of molds), the tricky part is growing the fungus that you WANT. So, there's an innitial stage where the medium (usually soil or peat) is ripe for any fungus that's floating in the air. Growing a chosen mushroom requires sterility and making sure that your growing area is isolated from wild fungus and yeasts. If you want to try growing your own mushrooms, I think shitake would be much easier and rewarding.