# Any sightings around Milledgeville, GA? Any tips or help?



## timothycdykes (Mar 26, 2018)

I'm relatively new to mushroom hunting and have tried VERY hard for almost 2 years to find morels with no luck. I know that there's a limited window of opportunity but I'm afraid I may be too far South or just not in an area where they grow (Milledgeville, GA). I've watched the temperatures like a hawk the last 2 seasons and searched very thoroughly in some places around here I would expect to find them, if they're going to grow at all, but have had no luck.

Has anyone found morels in or around Milledgeville? It's difficult for me to make time to travel North and due to the narrow window I'm worried I may lose my chance again this year. Any advice or tips is also greatly appreciated.


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## stripernut (Feb 25, 2018)

not sure of any success below the fall line but I would concentrate on flood plains around creeks and rivers. That's where I find them and I'm just above the fall line.


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## NCRealEstateGuy (Mar 20, 2018)

What do you mean by "The fall line"?


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## stripernut (Feb 25, 2018)

It separates the piedmont region from the upper coastal plain. Supposedly it's where the ocean was at it's highest in years long gone by. you can find a map online.


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## NCRealEstateGuy (Mar 20, 2018)

OK! Thanks. Interesting. 
So far, here in Concord, I am finding nothing at my Indicator Spots. The forecast has me believing that it will be next week.


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## eidolon (Feb 13, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> I'm relatively new to mushroom hunting and have tried VERY hard for almost 2 years to find morels with no luck. I know that there's a limited window of opportunity but I'm afraid I may be too far South or just not in an area where they grow (Milledgeville, GA). I've watched the temperatures like a hawk the last 2 seasons and searched very thoroughly in some places around here I would expect to find them, if they're going to grow at all, but have had no luck.
> 
> Has anyone found morels in or around Milledgeville? It's difficult for me to make time to travel North and due to the narrow window I'm worried I may lose my chance again this year. Any advice or tips is also greatly appreciated.


Sandy, spongy, flats beside creeks, bottom land, mixed shade and sunlight seems to be a must, and the morels tend to sprout near other things on the ground, it seems. Avoid areas dominated by pines or oaks, you want riverine trees - beeches, river birches, sycamores, tulip poplars, and ash. Creeks; I doubt you'll find them beside that big lake down there. I get the idea that swampy areas, with standing water, are also not much use. They like to be around privet, viney areas, may apples, trilliums.


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## eidolon (Feb 13, 2018)

I would try the edges of that big creek that empties into the Oconee, right by McMillan Island, behind the Ga. Military College ball fields (near that Pumping Station Road compound (which is obviously fenced off...).


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## timothycdykes (Mar 26, 2018)

I've got some places in mind that I could certainly search, but I don't want to waste my time if they just don't grow here. I saw mention the fall line and wondered if anyone has found anything out near Hard Labor Creek (I think it's above the fall line)? I'm gonna be free this weekend so I'd like to go somewhere where I stand a good chance. I may even be going out as far as Cloudland Canyon area or somewhere else up North. Any suggestions?


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## stripernut (Feb 25, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> I've got some places in mind that I could certainly search, but I don't want to waste my time if they just don't grow here. I saw mention the fall line and wondered if anyone has found anything out near Hard Labor Creek (I think it's above the fall line)? I'm gonna be free this weekend so I'd like to go somewhere where I stand a good chance. I may even be going out as far as Cloudland Canyon area or somewhere else up North. Any suggestions?


technically you are not supposed to pick anything on a State Park. I know because I was a Georgia DNR Park ranger for 27 years. I really don't think they would say anything other than don't do it again- your call.


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## timothycdykes (Mar 26, 2018)

stripernut said:


> technically you are not supposed to pick anything on a State Park. I know because I was a Georgia DNR Park ranger for 27 years. I really don't think they would say anything other than don't do it again- your call.


If I'm being honest, for my first find, I'm mostly interested in photography - especially if it happens to be at a state park. Where can I go that's not a state park that is also not someone's private property? Locally, there's Bartram Forest and the Selma Erwin trail but I've not found any at either of those.


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## stripernut (Feb 25, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> If I'm being honest, for my first find, I'm mostly interested in photography - especially if it happens to be at a state park. Where can I go that's not a state park that is also not someone's private property? Locally, there's Bartram Forest and the Selma Erwin trail but I've not found any at either of those.


Oconee National forest. Look for Corps of engineers lakes. They usually control the land around the lake and the tributaries. Wildlife management areas ( need a pass).


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## eidolon (Feb 13, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> I've got some places in mind that I could certainly search, but I don't want to waste my time if they just don't grow here. I saw mention the fall line and wondered if anyone has found anything out near Hard Labor Creek (I think it's above the fall line)? I'm gonna be free this weekend so I'd like to go somewhere where I stand a good chance. I may even be going out as far as Cloudland Canyon area or somewhere else up North. Any suggestions?


There's no avoiding "wasting your time" until you get a sense of where they'll grow down here. They are not common, like they are apparently in the Midwest. I've been looking for 3 weekends in an area where I *know* that they have been found before, and so far we've found only one puny little specimen that someone stepped on, it was completely buried under the leaves....Milledgeville is *on* the Fall Line, so they should be north of there. Hard Labor Creek looks good. I am tempted by the Oconee Natl Forest near Scull Shoals, to the east of there, and may go down there from Athens this Saturday. One thing is to stay away from the Pine forests, lots of these places were logged, and the trees replanted with pine, which is no good for morels around here. Google from the sky has photos of this area taken in the Winter, so you can usually figure out where the evergreen trees are from those aerial photos. And I have NEVER seen a park ranger, in many decades living in GA., but they *could* show up, I suppose...I got questioned on some University property last weekend by the university cops, and they said they didn't care what I was doing so long as I wasn't "smoking weed"...


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## es (Feb 27, 2017)

I have certainly found them in Milledgeville, GA, though I used to have more luck in Virginia. We head up to the Milledgeville area from Tallahassee, FL, one weekend every spring, generally between the third week in March and the first week in April. We've been doing this for about five years, and had one bumper year (several meals worth) and two or three middling years - enough for a dinner. Last year was virtually a bust - things warmed up really quickly, and then we had a late frost, which I think made for a strange season. This year, I can't go until April 6th and I am worried it's getting late, so we may head further north. Other posters are right about the conditions - sandy, well-drained flood plains with tulip poplar, often unfortunately with thick privet understories. You often see spring ephemerals like trilliums, bloodroot and may apples in the areas that are not privet-infested.


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## Michelle evans (Mar 7, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> I'm relatively new to mushroom hunting and have tried VERY hard for almost 2 years to find morels with no luck. I know that there's a limited window of opportunity but I'm afraid I may be too far South or just not in an area where they grow (Milledgeville, GA). I've watched the temperatures like a hawk the last 2 seasons and searched very thoroughly in some places around here I would expect to find them, if they're going to grow at all, but have had no luck.
> 
> Has anyone found morels in or around Milledgeville? It's difficult for me to make time to travel North and due to the narrow window I'm worried I may lose my chance again this year. Any advice or tips is also greatly appreciated.


Any luck ? I am gonna be in lake today looking


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## timothycdykes (Mar 26, 2018)

Nothing but upside-down and partially eaten russulas. I don't think I'll have time to look again until Thursday.


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## Michelle evans (Mar 7, 2018)

timothycdykes said:


> I've got some places in mind that I could certainly search, but I don't want to waste my time if they just don't grow here. I saw mention the fall line and wondered if anyone has found anything out near Hard Labor Creek (I think it's above the fall line)? I'm gonna be free this weekend so I'd like to go somewhere where I stand a good chance. I may even be going out as far as Cloudland Canyon area or somewhere else up North. Any suggestions?


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## Michelle evans (Mar 7, 2018)

My dad has found them in a gusts


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## Michelle evans (Mar 7, 2018)

Michelle evans said:


> My dad has found them in a gusts


Augusta


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## es (Feb 27, 2017)

Well, we just got back from our annual Georgia morel foray. First to Milledgeville; too late - we found three large morels that were a couple days beyond being edible. Then to near Lake Lanier; after a cold, rainy night in a leaky tent, we discovered we were probably a bit too early, finding two small morels - one little pinner that must have just emerged and then one of about two inches tall, both of which we left for others to find in a week or two. Still empty handed, we wound our way back south and came across a decent looking floodplain not too far from Hoschton. I jumped out and left the others, who were still chilly, and perhaps a little frustrated by this point, in the car. Walked out a few hundred yards, peering into the woods on either side, and then turned around, dejectedly thinking the soil might be a little too wet. Walking briskly back to the car, I happened to cast an eye sideways into a little clearing under some large privet bushes and saw a good 6" morel. Then another; then another. Back to the car to get a pouch and the others, we then returned for 45 minutes of some of the best mushrooming I've had outside of picking chanterelles. By this point, we were under time pressure to get back, otherwise we would have tried some other spots in the area. It might have been towards the end of the season there, because most of the morels were on the larger side, and a few were showing some age, but even with leaving every third or fourth one to reproduce we came back with a couple pounds - thankfully, as we had two friends along who we didn't want to disappoint. A pdf picture of part of the find is attached below. Now to find some new recipes...


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## morelsxs (Oct 25, 2012)

Persistence . . . . Good way to end the day.


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