Monday, April 13, 2009

Growth Experiment - Redux

OK, well every good experiment can't be a success, and I realized the folly of my ways when I returned home from hunting today and checked on my experiment. Instead of a larger mushroom as I had expected all that I saw was one that was completely flopped over. At first I thought, that was fast, but when I opened the lid and the foul smell hit my nose I realized the folly of my ways.

I always have warned about storing bags in plastic bags. If you have ever left a handful of morels in a shopping bag in a hot car, you will know exactly what happened. I should have left the lid off and used glass or a non plastic container.

Luckily, I was out hunting today and came across another much more regal specimen growing from wood. It was fate I tell you. While my morel at home was going bad unbeknownst to me, the shroom gods had smiled down and provided a replacement. Actually I didn't find it, but the person who did, was kind enough to donate it to the pursuit of morel theorizing.

When it comes to morel hunters, theorizing about morels is second only to actually finding morels. I will have to devote a future entry on this subject. I always enjoy hearing a good, or heck even a bad, morel theory about where when and why they show up where they do. But enough about that and back to the newly revised experiment.


Here is the new candidate, a nice ghostly grey. He is actually a little bigger than the old one. The cap measures in at 1 3/4 inches high by 1 inch wide with a 3 1/2 inch circumference.


To avoid any complications with this one it is being stored in a glass container without a lid. Hopefully, this one will turn out a lot better than its predecessor and success will emerge from the lessons of failure.

By the way, me and two others found just under 100 nice ones today right in the heart of Mid-MO. With the warmer weather to come, looks like things are gearing up for a great season.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great experiment, I've been checking on your blog daily for about 2-3 days when i found it. I'm from the Lake of the Ozarks area down by bagnell dam. Found my first grey yesterday after about 45mins of slow gravel road cruising checking out the hillsides. I think later this week will be prime, i'm gonna go out in full force Thursday/Friday. Supposed to warm up a bit, and after our rain i think its gonna be an excellent season.

AlexPickman said...

Hey, can you give me your opinion on when Morels will start really popping up around the Marceline area in southeastern Linn County, MO??

Im am expecting highs in the 60's up here today through Saturday. Lows during this stretch will be in the mid to upper 40's. Then a chance of rain Friday night into Saturday.

There are a lot of forecasts showing warmer temperatures Sunday and Monday, but I think there will be another storm system developing and I am expecting both Sunday and Monday to be in the 40's and 50's with some rain. Lows Sunday and Monday will likley drop into the 30's with frost and possibly a freeze in locations likely. Then another warm up into next week.

I showed my forecast because I havnt found any morels yet up here, but have heard reports of small ones around. So could someone tell me when I should start looking? I am think about 2 weeks or so..

ahistory said...

TheLRCwxguy, well that depends on what you want to find.

If you just want to get out in the woods and see them, then start this week, though expect them to be small hard to see and many not worth picking. But you will know right where they are, cover them up and come back later.

If you want some good eating, I would wait until next week, when more will be a good size.

But that's just based on reports I've seen on boards and if the forecast holds like they predict, which this being Missouri, we all know it won't.