This study aimed to advance outdoor cultivation techniques for black morels in the North Central Region. In parallel, we gauged market potential through surveys of established networks of mushroom foragers and vendors, as well as through broader consumer surveys. To help lessen risks for growers, we also assessed production costs and identified minimum yield levels that growers would need to reach in order to break even economically. We found that farmers across many states were successful in cultivating morels, but that yields were too low for morels to be a profitable crop. One of the main challenges with cropping morels outdoors was managing the environmental conditions (moisture and temperature) during the spring fruiting cycle.  Common pests encounters were fungal and bacterial pathogens that colonize the fruiting bodies, small mammals which consume the nutrient packs and damage the rows, and slugs that graze on mycelium and developing fruiting body. Cultivation of Morchella rufobrunnea by planting sclerotia has the advantage of a a quicker morel flush (typically 1-2 months), rather than the 6 month period between planting and harvesting for black morels. However, there is still not reliable sources of sclerotia or spawn for would-be farmers to purchase, which remains another obstacle to growing the industry.

Though, COVID-19 may have hindered some aspects of this research project, including in-person demonstration events, we still worked with farmers each year of this grant and have many results and findings on the marketing and cultivation of morels that contribute to the field and can be built upon by others. Regardless of missing opportunities to hold in-person events to spread information about morel cultivation, our efforts were still recognized by growers outside of our participant group. For example, each year of this project we had unsolicited inquiries about learning how to cultivate morels, some of which were farmers, enthusiasts, and others were non-profits. Thus, we have created a website to help distribute the findings of this research to interested parties going forward, https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/bonito-lab-morels.

During each year of this research project we generated new isolates and crosses of morels from nature for cultivation. For instance, in the third year of this project we selected four strains (SARE 5, 7, 118 and 130) that had outperformed other isolates in experimental plantings across multiple sites by an average of 0.014 lb/ft yield increase. Other growers had successes similar to our demonstration site, producing 0.01 lbs/ft and 0.07 lbs/ft. Water and temperature fluctuations in the spring were the two factors that seemed to cause the most trouble for farmers. It was common that farmer participant’s morel patches would dry up and developing morels would abort, or, depending on the year or location, developing morels would heat up under the plastic and mold. In general, cultivating morels in greenhouses, hi-tunnels, or other structures that can help to reduce the fluctuation of moisture and heat could improve yield and their reproducibility. It also appears that morel production yields decrease with continuous cropping of morels in the same soil. New research also indicates that potassium can be depleted, such that soil amendments such as wood ash, which is high in potassium, could be a beneficial remedy for this and may improve morel growth and yields. 

As we mentioned, in the final year we experimented with cultivating M. rufobrunnea outdoors. The cultivation method was streamlined and simple, simply involving the planting of sclerotia into the ground once the soils can be worked in the Spring. The maintenance is also simple, involving frequent monitoring and watering each week. This was found to be an effective method for cultivating this species. Yields could be improved by planting sclerotia in hoophouses or in a habitat with controlled environmental and growing conditions.

Diseases and molds have been a prevalent problem for every grower throughout the grant, and we still are finding ways to curb these issues. One way we combated mold issues, is by increasing ventilation in the row plastic when morels are starting to grow. One disease, Red Stipe, causes morel stipes to turn red and stop growing. This disease syndrome was recently shown to be caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aureofaciens and Bacillus subtilis  causal agent identified in late 2023. This problem may be mitigated by watching temperatures as morels grow, and to manage plots with shade cloth to keep temperatures below 15℃, as this inhibits the growth of bacterial responsible for Red Stipe  (Zhu et al. 2023). As the demand for morels increases, the more literature we can expect to improve our understanding of morel diseases.

Our economic research indicates that that while none of the research participants in this project produced enough morels to fully cover their production costs, there is genuine potential for profitable production of cultivated morels.  As shown by the morel forager survey, market prices of morels are high (about $36/lb in 2020) (Malone et al. 2022) and appear to be rising. Over half of U.S. households purchase mushrooms, and the share of speciality mushrooms like morels is rising (Pudasainee 2022).  Our breakeven yield analysis identifies a target yield of 0.16 lbs per foot of row for profitable production.  One participant actually produced more than that yield, although he had higher than average costs.  The broader conclusion is that if growers can reduce labor costs and/or gain access to higher morel prices, they can achieve profitability with yields lower than that average threshold determined under this research project.