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My Morel Videos:

Morel Bed Site Prep - Morel Spore Kit & Soil - Morel Bed Protective Fence

Who’s Who at MyMorels.com:

	Yours truly. Somewhat refined but not really a ‘dandy.’ I like to garden. But I’ve never eaten (intentionally) what I’ve grown before.
	The Assistant Groundskeeper, Zuzu. The morel mushroom garden will certainly be a flying-critter-free zone, thanks to the Zuzu-like reflexes of turbo-cat, here.

Morel Mushroom Spore Kit and Soil Mixture Video

This is video from October 2007. I prepared the soil base according to the morel mushroom spore kit instructions. The ingredients include:

• 1-2 Gallons wood ash & burnt wood chunks
• 1-2 Gallons Peat Moss
• 1-2 Gallons Topsoil
• 1 gallon sand
• 1 gallon approx gypsum wallboard, crushed
• Morel Spore Kit

(These may not be the exact specifications of the mixture; they were called out in the morel mushroom spore kit instructions - they seem to have disappeared.)

These ingredients are for the Morchella angusticeps (or ‘fire morel’ mushrooms.) The spore kit was from Fungi Perfecti. The company is in Olympia, Washington. Important disclaimer: whether or not the spores actually fruit is not guaranteed. FP provides a healthy morel mushroom spore kit; it is up to the grower (me and you) to create a well-prepared morel mushroom bed ‘habitat.’ With a little cooperation from The Elements, morel mushrooms will hopefully begin to appear within one to two springs of planting.

Creating the morel soil mixture was actually the easiest part of the process in crating a morel mushroom bed. The site clean up and preparation was by far the most labor intensive. Oy, my back! Also, creation of anti-critter fencing was more work than the soil mixture creation.

I had a fun time compiling this video and editing it; if you’re interested, I used my ‘old’ Hi-8 Sony camcorder to film, and I used Pinnacle Studio 10 to capture and edit the raw footage. There’s actually about an hour’s worth of raw footage of the entire process; this 5 minute clip is one of three videos I plan on releasing.

Thank you!

Don, the urban morel farmer

My Morel Videos:

Morel Bed Site Prep - Morel Spore Kit & Soil - Morel Bed Protective Fence

Morel Mushroom Habitat Site Prep

This video is from October 2007 footage. The only tools required for this part of the morel mushroom bed construction are: shovel, edger, and tape measure.

According to the morel mushroom spore kit instructions, there’s enough spores within the kit to cover a 4′ by 4′ area. But locating a good site on your property for the habitat is first. The morel mushroom bed habitat must be:

• Shady
• Well drained soil
• in contact with the ground soil (for the mycelium to ‘root’ and grow)

(The bed must also be protected from hungry morel-eating critters. The protective fencing video comes later.)

Please Note: I mistakenly say in the narrative that the bed should be located in not shady areas. This is wrong.The morel mushroom habitat bed must be in shady conditions, at most part sunny only. I’m new to the video creation thing…

Don, the urban morel farmer

My Morel Videos:

Morel Bed Site Prep - Morel Spore Kit & Soil - Morel Bed Protective Fence

Morel Mushroom Habitat Protective Fencing

This video is from October 2007 footage. If you’re as dumb as me, and like to feed the wild animals that live around your house (heck, we used to buy cheap cat food to have on hand for our furry wild visitors) your backyard is an unofficial menagerie. We sometimes have half a dozen raccoons in our backyard. Wild animals are indeed attracted to the smell of maturing morel mushrooms, so if you want to actually be able to harvest the fruit of your labors, you’ll need a good fence.

Now, your morel mushroom habitat will be around for a number of years, so let’s build a sturdy one from the start. You’ll need:

• Roll of 12-gauge wire fence fabric, 3′ tall (I used “Rabbit Fence”)
• Snips to cut the wire fence fabric
• 8 metal fence stakes / fenceposts (get the kind that have some built in clips for your fence fabric to fit)
• Nylon Zip Ties
• Tape measure, hammer or mallet

A few important tips about constructing your fence.

1. Create smiliarly-sized ‘panels.’ 4′ long panels one at a time are best. Less than that, you’re making too much work for yourself; more than that, and your panels will lose some of their strength.
2. Roll some of the fence fabric out 24 hours ahead of time. Tightly rolled wire fabric will want to hold its curl, so unroll 12′ out and weigh it down so it can ‘relax’.
3. BE CAREFUL when cutting! When you cut the wire fence fabric, it will be very sharp and pointy. The most dangerous time is when you cut the last strand - the previously curled roll will want to curl back up! Anticipate and prepare before cutting completely. Wear gloves and even eye protection.

In the meantime, if you’ve got a hankering for morel mushrooms right now (you can get fresh morels or dried morels (and any other type of mushroom you like), check out these sellers delectibles: