M.K. Dorje Sr.

Interesting how they smell like cucumbers or watermelons... I'm wondering what they taste like now. Like you said, sounds like you definitely need to harvest this one early before it gets tough...

Some questions Dian:

1.) How big IS it?  

2.) Does it smell like watermelon rind?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerioporus_squamosus

Wikipedia says that pioneer botanist Sir William Hooker once found one that had a circumference of 7 feet 7 inches!!  :0

Yes, it's Meripilus sumstinei. I trimmed off the tender edges for stir fry and my fingers stained black in minutes. Tasted like oyster mushroom but tougher. The base was too woody to handle and I saved most of mushrooms for stock.

May, I'm glad to hear that you have successfully identified that one.  I'm adding Meripilus to my "look for" list this fall!  I'm wondering now if I've walked right by it in the past...

Christopher Weeks wrote:

M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:I see the Dyer's polypore all the time. As the common name suggests, it is used to dye fabrics.

Very cool! I bought my daughter a copy of this book on using mushroom pigments for her birthday last year so after you mentioned this, I passed it on, she looked it up, and we dismantled the whole thing. It's in the dehydrator now and we're going to dye a skein of undyed yarn with it and a tin mordant and she'll make the rest into watercolor which is her real interest.

That's awesome Christopher, glad you two could find a good use for that one! Please let us know how it goes, cause I'm also interested in using mushrooms to dye fabrics.

Christopher Weeks wrote:It’s hard to get a picture that captures all the weirdness. It’s growing in my garlic bed, and has encompassed a couple of the garlics and a bunch of weeds. I have no idea what it is beyond pretty cool and kind of hard-surfaced.

That one looks a lot like the Dyer's Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), a common parasite on Douglas-fir in the Northwest. See what you think:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeolus_schweinitzii

Mushroomexpert:

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/phaeolus_schweinitzii.html

I see the Dyer's polypore all the time. As the common name suggests, it is used to dye fabrics.

May Lotito wrote:We received 2" of rain two days ago and today I stumbled into these giant clusters of mushrooms near an old oak stump. Black-staining polypore?

May, I'm not familiar with the black-staining polypore (Meripilus sumstinei), but here is an excellent description from mushroomexpert.com to help with your identification:

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/meripilus_sumstinei.html

Here is the wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meripilus_sumstinei

Hope this helps!

Megan, those mushrooms definitely look like Agaricus- with gills that turn from pink to chocolate brown, but they are probably not Portobellos (Agaricus bisporus). Agaricus is an extremely complex genus, comprising over 200 species in North America. In the words of David Arora: "Agaricus species are perplexingly polymorphic." There are several characteristics to separate the different species, including staining reactions, odor and veil characteristics.  Some species are delicious and some are toxic. In my experience, I've found that portobellos (which are the same species as white button mushrooms) are not easy to grow from spores and are extremely rare in the wild. Here is a key to this perplexing group of mushrooms from Michael Kuo:

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/agaricus.html

I've been growing Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms on logs for many years in Oregon. My strategy in the summer is to stack the logs tightly in an extremely  shady area underneath standard sized fruit trees in my food forest, cover them with clear plastic sheeting and then cover that with a brown or blue plastic tarp. When it rains , I uncover the logs. (I don't like plastic, but it works well for me.)  Maybe canvas tarps would work as well. Field & Forest Products also sell a "fruiting blanket" that might work for you:

https://fieldforest.net/shop/supplies/fruiting-blankets/

I also soak the logs to force them into fruiting. I use 5 gallon buckets or 25 gallon totes or 50 gallon pickle barrels. When I'm done soaking one side of the logs, I soak the other side.

I also use a mister sometimes, which might not work so well for you because of the chlorine.  Since my logs are stacked right under the fruit trees, the fruit trees get extra water from the run off as well. I also sometimes have beds of Wine Caps or Landscape Morels underneath the stacked logs for even more benefit.

Hope this info helps!

Here's a map that shows where morels were found this past spring. If you zoom in to Tennessee, you can see that your new state is a hot spot for morels:

https://www.thegreatmorel.com/morel-sightings/

I've had some success with growing Landscape Morels (Morchella importuna) in my garden. Check out this thread I started a while back:

https://permies.com/t/263537/grow-landscape-morels-garden

However, because of recent research indicating that some cardboard is contaminated with nasty "forever" chemicals called PFAS, I would advise caution about my method. In fact, I'm currently trying to figure out how to modify my method to eliminate cardboard, or how to test for PFAS in cardboard before using it.

Everything Mushrooms was a mushroom supply company based in Knoxville, Tennessee where I used to buy my morel mushroom spawn. Unfortunately, they seemed to have gone out of business.  So you might want to check out Field & Forest Products in Wisconsin for morel spawn, as well as info on how to grow them. They have excellent mushroom growing kits and have lots of info about growing morels. They are very helpful and even will answer your questions over the phone. Good luck!

https://fieldforest.net/how-to-plant-morels-landscape-morel/