Subject: Re: spring sightings

From: [email-masked] (Richard Winder)
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 04:27:42 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes:
>
>Please tell us more.  Morels in the backyard, yes!  
>

I see my post got mangled.  Sorry about that folks.  Anyway:

To answer your request, this isn't really new stuff- others have lots of 
experience with this. Here's my particular spin on it:

Step 1:  Secure inoculum.  Several suppliers frequently mentioned in this
newsgroup will do this for you, or you can grow your own.  In my case, 
I selected a very large speciment of M. elata, stored it in the 
refrigerator several days, then took a small square of the fertile cap 
tissue and placed it in a Petri dish with malt extract agar at room 
temperature.  The warmth seems to trigger ascospore release- they shoot
off and land some distance away.  I let the spores germinate and develop 
thousands of tiny colonies, so that I can avoid the areas contaminated by 
bacteria.  I don't attempt to get pure, single spore strains, because 
multi-spore material seems to do better for generating sclerotia, which 
are supposed to be the primordia for the fruiting bodies.  So, I transfer 
the clean colonies to new agar plates.  There are various ways to generate 
sclerotia for storage until you are ready to inoculate.  I used both a split 
plate method, which is probably too complicated for some.  I also used a much 
simpler method- autoclaved puffed wheat (brought to 50% moisture) in mason 
jars, with about 1 g Calcium Carbonate per jar  (the wheat collapses upon 
autoclaving, so you have to do some recombining- but you can also use culture 
bags).  If you don't have an autoclave to make your agar and spawn media with,
you can use a pressure cooker for small amounts.

Step 2:  Dig your bed in the Fall.  Pick a site that is well-drained, but
not prone to completely drying out.  I added the following materials:
soggy cardboard (about 2 feet down, at bottom), rotten apples, lots of peat
moss, clam shells, barbeque ashes, plenty of soil, and plenty of hydrated lime
(I put in about 1/3 bag).  Mix as much as you dare, but try not to leave
the apples on top (it attracts animals), and don't worry about lumps of
lime.  To finish off, I put some fir branches on top to prevent deer browsing,
etc.

Step 3:  Inoculate.  I just slipped sclerotia in here and there, 
covering it over lightly.  I ensured that a few of the sclerotia 
were over apples.

Step 4:  Wait and hope!

Although I enjoy hunting for mushrooms, and there are a few localities
where morels can become abundant here, over-all the southern part of
Vancouver Island doesn't seem to be rich in morel habitat for a number
of reasons.  So, I'd have to say that cultivation is an
interesting alternative.   Good Luck!    -RSW

  RICHARD WINDER                    Title: Research Scientist
  Canadian Forest Service           Phone: (604) 363-0773
  Victoria, B.C.                    Internet: [email-masked]