From the looks of things, 2017 will be a very interesting morel mushroom season! We have had an unusually warm winter, followed by a cool March. First of all I would like to say that I am extremely pleased with the cool down temperatures. Morel Mushrooms LOVE a cool spring! We had 60 degree weather in Febuary, which put us onto a very early morel season. I thought it was going to be an early, quick bad season like 2012, but this cool down puts things back on track for us. Still too early to tell, but if the weather pattern continues, we will be in the middle of a above average morel hunting season. Now we just need the rain! If we get cool long dragged out Spring, with lots of rain- expect to see a heavy bounty of Morel Mushrooms in 2017 across Midwest. I am an optimist, I will just leave it at that! :)
A few of the states have been picking some black morels right before we got the last snow storm.
The black morel mushroom mycelium is resilient. It is hardier then the Gray / Yellow Morels. That said, some of the baby black morels that were under the blanket of leaves, will be fine unless the temps get real bad. I expect to see more black morel finds across Midwest once the time is right. After the black morels, about a week later ( depending on weather ) the gray and yellow morels will begin to make their appearance.