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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Hunting and Identification
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Lack of shrooms in South East UK
    #25583886 -

I’ve been looking around the south east and even in the midlands and not seen any liberty caps for over three years! Hardly see any other mushrooms either! Any idea where it’s best to look in this region?

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Ontical]
    #25583914 -

A good question is - have you looked hard enough, and in the right kind of habitat?
If you never found them before at all, there is obviously something you're doing wrong.

Liberty caps grow all over the UK, given that the conditions are right.

Welcome to the Shroomery. :cheers:


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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Anglerfish]
    #25584251 -

I have found them before down here in meadows full of cow and sheep shit, kind of boggy and in some hills and there were loads of them, but not even seeing any other mushrooms never mind psilocybin. A friend of mine visited previously fruitful areas in the midlands and nothing was there!

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Anglerfish]
    #25584259 -

Anglerfish is right, although to be fair, all suggestions are that at least last year and this year (so far) have been pretty poor in the southeast. The year before that was a lot better.

Last year it was a long summer, then a cold patch in September (I think) that half woke things up, then another very long, warm and dry period that didn't quit until the temperature suddenly dropped hard.

This year it's the very long and dry summer that's been the problem. The spots where I've found edibles before have had very few this year. Even the horrid earthballs that are usually out in force around my area have been in short supply.

I've walked through field after field and seen almost nothing for the last several weeks, other than a huge burst of mycena after the rains a couple of weeks ago.

That said, following a multi-day cold spell, it's rained hard in the southeast over the last 24 hours. The next couple of days will hopefully bring some fungal production.

Good luck.

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Ontical]
    #25584301 -

The funny thing about them is, they could be in one field but not the next. You may find a field that looks just the right habitat for them, but for whatever reason you'll never find them there, but they could be just over the hedge in the neighbouring field. If you find you're checking the same field over and over again but they're never popping up, then try somewhere else. The good thing is, that once you've found a patch, they tend to pop up in that exact same spot year after year. So once you've found a patch, you can add that to your list of reliable spots, and if you keep venturing out, you'll find more and more spots, so you'll have more success as the years progress.


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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Duggstar]
    #25585949 -

You all seem to have had the same hypotheses as I about lack of rain, long hot summers and generally poor reports down here, but I assure you all I have looked in many places in and around what could be termed ‘fields of the gods’ but there’s barely anything on rotten logs, or hiding in the tufts of the hills, meadows or in surprising places where shrooms never would grow, or so it would seem. The ground just seems too hard, too sandy and no amount of rainfall brings on the bloom.

I think I will just have to go into far north counties, maybe even Wales and Scotland as I haven’t picked or seen a liberty cap down here since Trent Park or Cockfosters in 2015 and even then, we didn’t harvest enough for use, but luckily a good stock was available from nearly a decade ago which was a massive hoard in the midlands near a fishery, so we had those, but even that place has shown to be shroomless.

We went to Croxley too, which always has a large selection of any mushrooms, lots of cow shit and a river, it’s quite boggy and peat everywhere, but even that has been unfruitful!

I’ve been to the Ivinghoe beacon, Slapton, Marsworth, Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard and a few other places I can’t recall - but I can assure you all that the search has been going on for 3 years, well, 4 really and there’s nothing down here!

Additional: there has been a couple of nights where a ground frost has kicked in, so that also troubles me, but I’m 90% sure that a frost that kills off shrooms has to linger for a few days not just overnight until morning.

Edited by Ontical (11/02/18 02:22 AM)

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Ontical]
    #25586317 -

I'll agree that they're a lot less common in the south east, and the season is also shorter. They're around though.

One thing to look at is soil type. There was a long discussion in (I think it was) last year's UK lib thread about soil types. It seems they like acidic soils, so you want anything with a soil type described as acid. Unfortunately, a lot of the places with elevation in the south east are on chalk, so relatively high pH (ie, low acidity).

The other issue is that the southeast lacks large open areas of sheep grazing like you get in, for example, the Peak District. Walking among sheep in the southeast may well get you a talking to by a farmer, because it's far less usual to go for a proper ramble in the southeast. Even where you have the right to do so, people exercise it so infrequently that you're up against a lot of prejudice.

Even just finding somewhere to park your car to get to some potential places can be difficult enough!

That said, they definitely exist in the southeast. They've been repeatedly reported in (for example) Richmond Park and the New Forest. The problem is that there's a strong random element. Out of a set of fields that appear identical, only one part of one field may produce libs. You therefore need to be pretty thorough when you're searching. This is made harder by the lack of numbers over the last couple of years - you could be perfectly thorough, but be searching during a time when they aren't fruiting.

If you can get further north or over to Wales or Dartmoor, that's probably a better bet. Look on the UK lib thread to learn when they're pumping, then get up there. They store well, so collect a couple of year's worth, and you won't need to think about it again for a couple of seasons.

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: greenbluebrown]
    #25587053 -

I’ve got a car and will be planning better for next season now probably, where a quest to Penrith and North Wales or even mid wales will be my first choices for shroom season, then Dartmoor for last resort.

The chalk and sand is too much down here, I’ve dwelled with the sheep who while under the influence of shrooms appeared like creatures composed of only two large eyes with eyebrows indicating to my subconscious that looking where the sheep are is probably a good idea - I couldn’t tell if the eye forms were from the face or the ass of the sheep, but either way, sheep shit is the key usually, geese can and cow shite too, but the soil upon which the stool rests has led me to consider other geological affects upon the development of the mushrooms.

I’ve been severely disappointed for a couple of years now, but planning is all.

Thanks for your feedback and advice people and I wish all psilocybe stoopers all the best during what remains of this season, I unfortunately don’t have the time this year, although I might go on a mission if this wonderful forum indicates a flourishing blossom!

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Ontical]
    #25587060 -

Good luck!

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: greenbluebrown]
    #27472461 -

No wonder they call it the garden of England;  Most pastures in the southeast are “gardens”.  I keep seeing people post their ‘fruits’ but that’s mostly been in the south west.

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Re: Lack of shrooms in South East UK [Re: Ontical]
    #27472625 -

As you've heard the South East is notoriously sparse compared to the wilder parts of the UK. I came across one of the most colonized fields I've seen near London, after 10 years of picking since this seems quite uncommon though, at least in the SE. While grazing fields are generally more reliable they also grow in parks, on sports fields and lawns, which there are plenty of in the South. The first time I found a few was on the recommendation to check cricket pitches.

I usually now go to national parks on the weekends during late September through October as it's almost guaranteed to find a few walking in the mountains, moors and surrounding fields, whereas even in peak season in the SE there be none at all over an entire weekend of walking.

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