How to Grow Morels: What the Research Really Shows

Morels are the mushroom most foragers dream of growing in the back garden. Kits and “morel habitat” spawn are easy to find online, and the idea is irresistible. But morel cultivation is very different from growing oyster or shiitake, and the honest answer to “can I grow morels at home?” is: you can try, but even well-run research trials often fail.

This article explains how morels are grown commercially in China, what a recent US research programme found when farmers tried the same approach, and what that means if you want to experiment yourself. It’s a cultivation guide, but it’s also a reality check, because the evidence is clearer than the marketing.

Why morels are different

Most cultivated mushrooms are decomposers that fruit reliably from a block of sawdust or straw. Morels (Morchella species) have a more complicated life cycle. A 2017 review in Critical Reviews in Biotechnology by Liu and colleagues names two key phases in morel development: the formation of sclerotia (hardened food-storage masses of mycelium) and the production of conidia (asexual spores). It also describes supplying “exogenous nutrition” as “the most important breakthrough in the field of morel cultivation”, though the authors say the mechanism behind it is still unclear.

A 2023 systematic review by Li and colleagues in Frontiers in Nutrition sums up why progress was so slow. It points to morels’ strict needs for temperature, humidity, light, pH and soil microbes. The same review says yields “are usually unstable” because of genetic instability and complex reproductive conditions.

A short history of morel growing

When	What happened
1980s	Ower and colleagues achieved a cultivation breakthrough using sclerotia and added nutrients, according to Li and colleagues
Up to 2008	Indoor morel production in the United States was abandoned, with low output and bacterial contamination among the problems (Li et al. 2023)
2012	Commercial outdoor soil cultivation began in China (Li et al. 2023)
2016	Chinese morel farms covered more than 2,600 hectares, up from about 200 (Li et al. 2023)
2020 to 2023	Michigan State University ran a SARE-funded programme to test outdoor morel growing with farmers in the US North Central region

The species matter too. China’s farms grow black morels such as Morchella importuna, M. sextelata and M. eximia, and Li and colleagues report that M. importuna accounts for more than 80% of the growing area. The morel in Ower’s early work was published as M. esculenta but is now described as M. rufobrunnea.

How Chinese growers do it

The Chinese method is a field crop rather than an indoor block. A 2024 study by Liu and colleagues in the Journal of Fungi on M. sextelata in a pear orchard shows the typical steps:

Prepare the soil. In that study, about 80 g of quicklime per square metre was applied to the soil about a month before sowing.
Sow in late autumn. The spawn was sown into raised ridges in November and mixed with the soil.
Cover the beds. The ridges were covered with polythene film to hold moisture and a shade net with a 70% shading rate.
Add nutrient bags. About ten days after sowing, mycelium appeared on the soil surface. Exogenous nutrient bags (bags of grain-based substrate) were then laid on the beds. The general practice described is to place them 10 to 15 days after a white mycelial layer forms.
Harvest in spring. Morels were picked the following spring, around late March in that study. Most single morels weighed 15 to 25 g.

The bag recipe and density matter. In that study, a bag mix of 48% wheat grain, 30% corn cob, 10% cottonseed hull, 10% wheat bran, 1% lime and 1% gypsum was used as the standard. Six bags per square metre gave the best yield in the density trial, at 327.81 g of fresh morels per square metre. Bag formulas that included pear sawdust did even better, reaching up to 372.91 g per square metre.

Even in China, results vary enormously. The 2017 review reports field yields “from 0 to 7,620 kg per hectare” across Chinese provinces. The 2023 review gives a highest reported yield of 15,000 kg per hectare.

Close-up of a dark brown black morel with a honeycomb-pitted conical cap and a pale stem — Black morel (Morchella importuna) in Luxembourg. Photo: Claude Pepin via iNaturalist, CC0 1.0.

What happened when US farmers tried it

From 2020 to 2023, Michigan State University, led by Gregory Bonito, worked with farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin to test the outdoor method. The SARE final report and a 2024 paper in Plants, People, Planet by Lee, Swinton and Bonito describe the results.

The method

Black morel spawn was planted in autumn (usually October or November) in rows, at about 0.5 kg per square metre and four inches deep.
Soils were tilled and adjusted to about pH 7.0 if acidic, and the spawn itself was grown on sawdust buffered to pH 7.0.
Rows had drip irrigation and plastic cover to hold moisture.
Grain-filled nutrient bags were laid on the rows. Wheat grain bags gave the highest yields, while hardwood leaf mulch gave low ones.
Trials were run in high tunnels, low tunnels and forest settings.

The results

Only about 30% of plots produced any harvestable morels: 8 of 23 plot-years in the 2024 paper.
The best yield recorded was 0.082 lb per foot of row. The average among producing plots was under 0.03 lb per foot.
The researchers calculated a break-even yield of about 0.16 lb per foot (range 0.08 to 0.25), with average costs of $5.65 per foot of row, about two-thirds of it labour. Only the very best plot came near the bottom of that break-even range.
The SARE report’s conclusion was blunt: yields were “too low for morels to be a profitable crop” at this stage.

What went wrong

The researchers identified several problems that any home grower should expect:

Spring weather: swings in moisture and temperature were a major problem. Farmers commonly saw patches dry up and developing morels abort, and mould under plastic was another issue.
Rodents: small mammals were a recurring pest in the plots.
Slugs: another pest that growers had to manage.
Disease: problems included one known as Red Stipe. The report suggests shade cloth to keep temperatures below 15°C to limit it.
Tired soil: yields appeared to fall when morels were grown repeatedly in the same soil. The report suggests potassium depletion as a possible factor and wood ash as a possible remedy.

There were bright spots. Growers tackled mould by increasing ventilation under the row plastic as morels began to grow. All the farmers who planted M. rufobrunnea sclerotia got at least some morels, with a quicker flush of about one to two months, although yields were low and variable. The researchers suggest that growing in greenhouses, high tunnels or hoop houses, which reduce swings in heat and moisture, could improve yields and consistency.

So, should you try growing morels at home?

If you enjoy experiments and can accept a likely failure, a small morel bed can be a fun project. Treat it as a trial, not a harvest plan. Based on the research above:

Do	Avoid
Start in autumn, using spawn from a supplier that names the species	Expecting a reliable crop in the first spring, or any spring
Prepare loose, tilled soil, and check the pH; the US trials aimed for about 7.0	Planting into acidic, compacted or waterlogged soil
Add grain-based nutrient bags once mycelium shows on the surface	Leaving nutrient bags exposed to rodents without protection
Shade the bed and keep moisture steady through spring	Letting the bed dry out, or cooking it under unventilated plastic on warm days
Rotate to fresh ground after a season or two	Replanting the same soil year after year

A small home trial, step by step

If you decide to try, keep the experiment small and record what you do, so a failure still teaches you something.

Autumn: pick a shaded patch of loose soil and test the pH. The Chinese trial limed the soil about a month before sowing, and the US trials tilled it and raised the pH to about 7.0 where needed.
Sowing: spread the spawn and work it into the top few inches of soil. The US trials planted at about 0.5 kg per square metre, four inches deep.
Early winter: watch for a white layer of mycelium on the surface, then lay grain-based nutrient bags on the bed. Protect the bed from rodents.
Late winter and spring: keep the soil evenly moist, add shade, and ventilate any plastic cover on mild days.
Spring: check the bed often. In the US trials, harvests ran from May to mid-July; in the warmer Chinese orchard trial, morels came around late March.

For general background on preparing growing materials, see our guide to mushroom substrates.

A wine cap bed is a far more dependable outdoor project. If you want a garden mushroom bed with a much better chance of producing, see our guide to growing wine caps in garden beds. For other species suited to the season, see spring mushrooms to grow and forage.

Eating your morels safely

If your bed does produce, the usual morel rules apply. Make sure every mushroom really is a true morel, because false morels can appear in the same places and are dangerous. Our guide to telling true morels from false morels covers the key differences. Morels should always be cooked before eating. Never rely on a photo or a description alone. If you are unsure about any mushroom that appears in your bed, have it checked by an experienced local identifier. For more on the wild mushroom itself, read why foragers love morels.

Sources and further reading

Featured image: black morel by Tom Erler via iNaturalist (CC0 1.0). Inline photo by Claude Pepin via iNaturalist (CC0 1.0).

How to Grow Morels: What Research Says About Morel Cultivation

Why morels are different

A short history of morel growing

How Chinese growers do it