Resources for Mushroom Growers
Morel Mushroom Cultivation
Morels are one tough mushroom to grow commercially! Two cultivation processes have been patented. The first process is based upon work by Ronald D. Ower, Gary Mills and James Malachowski, who were the first to produce morels in a controlled environment at San Francisco State University in 1982. The findings were published in Mycologia 74(1), Jan-Feb 1982. Still, at last report, no one has been able to produce morels by the instructions in the patent. Just perhaps, the patents left out a detail or two? Terry Farms opened a morel production facility in Auburn, Alabama and offered their products for a few years, but eventually closed down the operation. We suspect the economics were pretty marginal. In 2005 Gary Mills, now with Diversified Natural Products, began producing morels in Michigan. Some
suppliers sell morel spawn with instructions for creating a small outdoor patch. This works, sometimes, but it is certainly not a sure thing and don't expect commercial yields.
- Our friends at Mushroompeople summarized a process demonstrated for a TV show by Gary Mills, one of the parties to the orignal patents listed below.
- Terri Marie Beauséjour has developed some instructions for morel cultivation. Expect to do some experimentation on your own!
- Terry Farms purchased the patents originally held by Neogen in 1994 and, in 2005, Diversified Natural Products began producing morels in Michigan using the patents. Their process is quite complicated. The patents involved are:
- In 2005, Stewart C. Miller patented a process for growing morels that involves inoculating tree seedlings with morel mycelium, allowing the mycelium to grow, then killing the seedlings to induce the morels to fruit. Read all about it in US Patent 6,907,691B2 (PDF - 186K)
- In 2010, Segula Masaphy at Migal - Galilee Technology Center, a subsidiary of the Galilee Development Company in Israel, reported success cultivating Morchella rufobrunnea. His paper is entitled "Biotechnology of morel mushrooms: successful fruiting body formation and development in a soilless system" (PDF - 310K).
- There are lots of different species of morels and only one or two have actually been cultivated. If you are going to start with a wild morel you will need to learn all you can about them. The U.S. Forest Service published a book entitled "Ecology and Management of Morels Harvested From the Forests of Western North America." You can download it in four parts:
This page was updated on October 29, 2010.
