Morels in the Forecast

It's that time of year again!!! Morel Season is near!

Common yellow morels from last year.

We have seen some soaking rains transforming central Iowa from this…  

   into this, 

in just a few days.

Last year we had the heat, but not the moisture! That led to my biggest morel season ever, but I lucked out. I found all my mushrooms in micro climates -the compact, specialized locations where the weather was perfect to grow morels.

Last year's morels.

This year is much different. In fact, nearly polar opposite with winter lasting through march. Central Iowa claimed a top 20 coldest March standing. Compare that to last year's warmest March on record and you can see why this spring feels like winter won’t ever leave.

Air temp in blue, ground temp in yellow.

With that said, our recent warmth has now nudged central Iowa into spring. It's been warm enough that soil temps pushed briefly into the mid 50s for central and southwestern Iowa. I’d suspect with this amount of moisture and the residual warmth left in the ground, we may have some morels popping up. Now this isn’t the main show. It’s not even the opening act. Call this, the morel prelude… but if you're crazy about morels I don't think you're crazy for looking now.

White and Yellow morels may be springing up in small numbers in the the southern and eastern facing pockets of terrain in south central and southwest Iowa. South of I-80 and west of I-35 has had the best conditions, but it's still pretty borderline. 

We'll need quiet a bit more warmth and some more nights with lows in the 50s before the main show springs up in the woods. I'll keep you posted if I see this pattern in the forecast... unfortunately the two week extended looks more like winterzuma's revenge than a spring bloom.We could be dealing with a weekly visit from Canadian cold keeping morels dormant for another week or two.

The woods are still slowly waking up and close to 6 weeks behind last year's pace.

As long as we keep getting moisture, when we do get the warmth it should be a good crop of morels this year... it just might not happen until mid may!

This is how the woods looked when I found my first Morels last year.

Good luck with the turkeys, this year should be a good one if you can find that elusive sunny day. And while you're at it, keep me posted on the morels in your area :)