Sure, the warm weather we have been having has been nice. Maybe a little too nice. Very warm temperatures this early could be good and bad for the upcoming morel season. If temperatures stay on the above normal side and if we receive adequate moisture on and off, we could be in for an early morel mushroom picking season. However, if morels start to pop early and then a string of cold weather hits, it could really mess up the whole process. Also, if temperatures stay high, the ground could warm up too fast causing morels to "burn up" before they fully mature underground, which would make for a short morel season. A nice, gradual climb in temperatures with a lot of moisture is what you want for a longer morel season. With no moisture it really does not matter what the temperatures are.
For he last two years, prime morel picking took place around the second week of May in Minnesota. You could say this is close to normal for Minnesota. Should you expect morels to be out in full force earlier this year? It is still too early to tell. Keep an eye on the weather and the woods. Usually it would be safe to say there will be another cold spell coming our way sometime in April, but I also thought it would be safe to say we would get snow in March in Southeastern Minnesota, and it was the first year on record we did not. If you have picked mushrooms in the past, you know what the woods looks like during picking time. Jack -in-the-pulpits are up, wild asparagus is up, and the vegetation on the forest floor is usually pretty high. Another old stand-by morel masters use to tell when morels should be popping is when the low temperatures at night are above about 50 degrees for two weeks or so.
There are some good resources you can use to tell when the season is closing in. http://www.morels.com is a great site that has field reports from every mushroom picking state in the country. Oklahoma has pictures and reports of early morels already. Once you see reports from Iowa and other states south of Minnesota, you will know that the season is closing in fast. Also, http://www.greencastonline.com has a ground temperature map that is updated daily to help you know when the time is just right. Let us all hope the weather cooperates and gives us a great morel season. Check back for more morel reports in the weeks to come.
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