WMS Lecture - Morel Cultivation- Mike Jozwik - May 2024

Mike Jozwik gives an explaination of how Morchella mushrooms are being cultivated in places like China and how he too is beginning the process of cultivation of these tasty mushrooms on his own land. About 50 minutes of lecture and another 45 minutes of Q and A and discussion by Wisconsin Mycological Society follows.

Lecture begins at 21 mintues 52 seconds approximately. (iNaturalist discussion precedes)

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This lecture is titled "The Morel Initiative: Applying Chinese Morel Mushroom Cultivation Techniques in Wisconsin."
Mushroom Mike LLC is aiming to create an educational research platform to implement Chinese morel mushroom cultivation techniques in a Wisconsin setting to increase the supply and availability of morel mushrooms as a specialty crop through targeted stakeholder seminars and field training.
There are under a dozen commercial entities pursuing morel cultivation in the United States, of which, only two to my knowledge are pursuing outdoor cultivation practices. Due to the lack of research dissemination, access to research, or more-so the lack of commercial ventures wanting to share said research with the greater agricultural community; the possibility of cultivating morel mushrooms in the United States has largely fallen into the realm of speculation. By having a local hub of information, education, and research to increase the knowledge base and provide on-the-ground training to those interested, Wisconsin can be the center of the nation for not only wild morel mushrooms, but cultivated as well.