# picking morels



## gordon24

These pictures on here are driving me crazy, people need to stop pulling the whole morel out of the ground either cut it off or pinch it off.


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## 77sporty

Agree!!!!!!


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## meekmorel

oh i agree, learn to pinch em or use a knife, not that hard, you are destroying future morels...gotta be gentle


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## ghitch75

i have tried pitchin',pullin, and cuttin'.....doesn't make any difference around here......when the tree is done there done....IMHO....


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## the_neon_cowboy

It does it's not about later that season, it about "next year" If you cut of pinch them off you leave the "spawn" there which is still alive and it has a chance to come up in the same place / area next year. Makes more of a difference/ more detrimental if u catch them early in their life cycle before they release their spores. Also good to not use plastic bags you want to use something that breathes like burlap or mesh bags, you can be spreading the spores from your finds as u continue to hunt . Also putting them in plastic bags can trap moisture and make them mushy / spoil faster.


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## [email protected]_com

Pinching or cutting them off definitely helps with more morels the same year and in future years. Pulling them up also puts dirt and grit into the whole batch which is difficult to get rid of I just pinch mine off and have been doing it since I was about 6 years old.....64 years ago JimMck
www.morelbook.com


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## morelseeker

Before alot of people started picking them about twenty five years ago I'd have a brown stain on my thumb and index finger from pinching off so many. Been pinching them off for 51 years.


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## quigsby

If you don't know this you should. Pinch or cut only.The morel is just the fruit of the mushroom attached to a fine web structure (mycelium) that could possibly be blocks wide and long, some suggest even miles. When you pull a morel out of the ground you damage the structure of the morel plant called the mycelium. The morel plant usually has a symbiotic relationship with the elm or ash or whatever tree it attaches to, and when the tree is stressed, ie dying, it sends out the morels to shoot spore to re populate itself. Never pluck, always cut or pinch.


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## gordon24

ghitch75 its not when the tree is done its when there is no more food in the ground they are eating on. when the food is gone they move under gound to a new food source. i have read many books on morels and other mushrooms.


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