HERB - Re: Morel Mushroom Question

[Wes & Adrienne Will]

>Does anybody happen to know a way to transplant wild morels to a
>different location?  I found a lovely batch, but unfortunately, they're
>in a parking lot.  They have to be moved to a safer location, but I have
>no idea how to do this.  Can anyone help?

To "transplant" a morel is basically impossible.  The parts you see and eat
are simply "fruiting bodies" that make spores.  The real mushroom is an
amorphous mass of fuzzy white tendrils, sometimes many tens of yards in
total diameter, some few feet under the ground.

What you can try to do is fulfill the purpose of the fruiting bodies.
Allow some/all of the morel caps to remain undisturbed.  Slip a baggie over
the ones you select and nip it off after it is thoroughly dry and crumbly.
(The weather might not be real co-operative here, you can cover them
carefully with some sheet plastic or something.)  Crush them gently into
coarse crumbs and then choose a similar spot (spots) where you would like
them to grow.  Scatter them after a good rain storm, and rake the stuff
gently into the leaf mould.  

Wait five or ten years and check to see if it worked.....

Morels are fussy.
Eoin Caimbeul
and 
Rowenna de Montacute
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.