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Workman
1999 Spore War Veteran


Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 3,598
Loc: Oregon, USA
Last seen: 2 hours, 28 minutes
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Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far)
#2663824 - 05/11/04 03:12 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I've been dabbling in morel cultivation for quite awhile with almost no success. But this year I finally managed to produce a few in my garden.

I am not certain what it was about this particular experiment that caused the success but I can at least describe what I did.
The image below is a close-up of black morel sclerotia forming in a petri dish of malt agar.

A small wedge of the above culture was placed in a sterile jar of dilute malt water and incubated for 5 days. The resulting mycelial brew was injected into a presealable Mycobag with the self healing injection port. I made the morel substrate myself which was basically a cup of soaked grass seed on the bottom near the injection site and a thick layer of moist sawdust on top. This was sealed and then sterilized at 15psi for 3 hours (maybe overkill). After it cooled, I injected the mycelium into the grass seed and let it colonize at 60F for 3 weeks. There was plenty of the small orange sclerotia visible. In November, I dug a small depression in my garden and sprinkled it heavily with garden lime. I dumped out the sawdust layer into the depression and covered it with garden soil mixed with a few handfuls of lime and forgot about it until spring. Hopefully I can replicate this with a larger bed for next spring. The morel strain is from a wild collection. Maybe I just got lucky and was able to stumble into an easy to fruit strain. At least it seems to be well adapted to my area. Total number of mushrooms harvested was 15.
-------------------- Research funded by the patrons of The Spore Works Exotic Spore Supply My Instagram Reinvesting 25% of Sales Towards Basic Research and Species Identification 
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Anonymous
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2663833 - 05/11/04 03:15 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Hey thats great!
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flameclown
totality is amust


Registered: 04/04/04
Posts: 956
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) *DELETED* [Re: Workman]
#2663874 - 05/11/04 03:28 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Post deleted by flameclownReason for deletion: [this post is damn old]
-------------------- You're right. I should make MY living dancing around like a mongoloid on a bad acid-trip for a bunch of spoiled little dickheads. - Vulgar
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MycoFactory
Mr MycoBag

Registered: 04/02/03
Posts: 549
Loc: NC, USA
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2664840 - 05/11/04 06:51 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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That is totally AWESOME!!!!
Good job Workman. I am again inspired 
MycoBag
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YidakiMan
Stranger

Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 2,023
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: MycoFactory]
#2664850 - 05/11/04 06:52 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Would you be interested in sharing with an east-coaster a culture for testing?
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charlieXxXxX
Stranger

Registered: 03/29/04
Posts: 80
Loc: Earth, USA, WI, Madison
Last seen: 18 years, 11 months
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2667766 - 05/12/04 07:29 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Congratulations!
I am surprised that you didn't even try using wood ashes.
What was your reasoning using so much lime? (Apparently correct reasoning BTW.)
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charlieXxXxX
Stranger

Registered: 03/29/04
Posts: 80
Loc: Earth, USA, WI, Madison
Last seen: 18 years, 11 months
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: YidakiMan]
#2667776 - 05/12/04 07:34 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I'll send you a black morel culture if you like.
I should have a yellow morel culture also in a week or two.
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Olgualion
Shaman-In-Training


Registered: 11/13/01
Posts: 1,253
Loc: Currently Earth...
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2667930 - 05/12/04 09:01 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Fantastic, Workman!
Wonderful work as always, thanks for the inspiration.
One question though, was the bed created in November 2003?
-------------------- Study the past... See the future...
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cateyes

Registered: 12/16/03
Posts: 2,754
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2669442 - 05/12/04 04:11 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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This is a cool thread!
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Mycena
mycoexplorer
Registered: 05/02/03
Posts: 270
Loc: indonesia
Last seen: 11 years, 9 months
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: flameclown]
#2672154 - 05/13/04 02:14 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Well the Morels in Western Australia live up in the Jarrah forests and on the coast near limetone areas, also in the CBD on mulch The weather there is very very dry in summer from december to march there rarely rain at all and everything gets really hot and parched. Yet morels spring up in Autumn
The species is Morchella elata i had a culture but lost it - i now know better way to store it than agar I will try and get a culture in july when i go back there as i know a spot where they regularly come up. perhaps it would be more suited to California - our eucalypts and many fungi associated withe them seem to like it...
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GGreatOne234
Stranger
Registered: 12/23/99
Posts: 8,946
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2674758 - 05/13/04 04:56 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Wow workman, that's awesome. !
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YidakiMan
Stranger

Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 2,023
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2675156 - 05/13/04 06:34 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Spooooooooooooooon!
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Hooty
Reality isRelative

Registered: 02/24/03
Posts: 2,467
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: YidakiMan]
#2675492 - 05/13/04 07:45 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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very nice my friend, morels are an incredibly beautiful mushroom...
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Without love in the dream It will never come true
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ATWAR
Connoisseur

Registered: 01/26/03
Posts: 1,640
Loc: #108768 in line...
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2680645 - 05/14/04 11:42 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I also have succeeded in cultivating morels outdoors:

Now, I only grew 2 but I will explain my methods as well. Last year during morel season I harvested mycelium from the base of a good cluster. I probably dug up about a quart of dirt and proceeded to spawn this to a custom substrate. Here is what I used:
Dead trees (dead but still standing poplar and aspen) where taken from the same area as the morels were found fruiting. I then smashed these logs up and burned them (I would say only half burned). I then took the partial mix of ashes, charcoal, and partially burned wood, then mixed it with washed sand, dirt, and composted spent substrate (wood + straw based). I took the harvested mycelium and mixed it in with this substrate, and put it in a hole under my deck. I also collected the moss that grows under my deck and placed it around the patch. Early in the spring this year (right after the snow melted) I sort-of disturbed the patch surface to see if there was any growth (I couldn't tell). Then I proceeded to forget about it until the weather warmed up.
On a nice spring day I decided to clean out my mushroom beds from last year and move the spent substrate to my vegetable garden. When I went out to do said work those little morels stopped me dead in my tracks. Now, I don't know if I actually cultivated these, or if I harvested enough sclerotia to just produce the two. But, I have succeeded in taking a tissue clone (damn does the mycelium grow fast!), and once I propagate this further, I plan on making a much larger bed for next season. At the very least I ended up with the best indicator that morels were coming...
-------------------- To give is to live...
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Anonymous
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2681590 - 05/15/04 08:25 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Post History Deleted Upon User's Request
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YidakiMan
Stranger

Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 2,023
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: ]
#2681863 - 05/15/04 10:20 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I was told by a northern WI farmer that the morel farm is called Morel Mountain and is based in No. Michigan. But he said he visited some years ago and they had been experiencing horrific strain degneration.
A quick scan on google found this http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/NPP/98-44sum.html But it only indicates that they are the owners of the patent. But http://www.mushroomcompany.com/bi1994.html says they were sold in July 1994.
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Anonymous
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: YidakiMan]
#2686191 - 05/16/04 11:38 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Post History Deleted Upon User's Request
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Speeker

Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 877
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Workman]
#2686568 - 05/16/04 01:13 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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How about buying a transfer of Chinese patent at the lowest price! Then one could cultivate these in rows... 
<------ 
A Brief Introduction Of The Patent Transfer Of The Artificial Cultivation Of Morchella Escullenta
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YidakiMan
Stranger

Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 2,023
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: Speeker]
#2688395 - 05/16/04 07:32 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I wont buy that patent, but I sure want to recreate his results!
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Speeker

Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 877
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Re: Cultivated morels (outdoors only so far) [Re: YidakiMan]
#2690146 - 05/17/04 04:05 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Then all you need to do is "fifteen years research and 918 experiments and tests". Good luck! That price for the right to use their method and strains has dropped quite a lot (older version of that page cached by Google): [url=http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:www.chinavivers.com/1/papereng.htm]http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:www.chinavivers.com/1/papereng.htm[/url] On the other hand even that first price was not that big... "anually we can supply tens tons of Morchella esculenta dried with high qualities. At present , Morchella esculenta's price is $150 per kilogrm in bulk." They seem to produce other rareties too, like
edit: Specialty Mushroom Production Systems: Maitake and Morels
Edited by speeker (05/17/04 04:27 AM)
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