[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

The two articles state that morels are often found in the site where there has been a fire.

I suspect that one action of a fire is that it kills off competing fungus or plants which benefits the morels.

Morels feed on carbohydrates emitted by the roots of trees ad shrubs.
Fire may damage the tops of trees of bushes, but not their root systems which now may release nutrients from the damaged plants roots to the morel mycelium. The products of fire...essentially charcoal...may release minerals that morels require.

I wonder if someone is attempting to innoculate using morel spawn if it would be worth burning off a morel growing plot beforehand? (Among the other things suggested.) Just a thought.

[Pollard]

Morels are a famously difficult mushroom species to cultivate but are great for experimenting with new methods. Given their difficulty, we do not currently recommend for commercial use. (Please let us know of your successes and failures when trying to cultivate this species!) We recommend using this experimental spawn in outdoor beds, forest floor inoculations, or utilizing burned substrates. Morel mushrooms do not grow on logs.

https://northspore.com/products/morel-sawdust-spawn

Most everything I find says they're very tree specific and like Ash and Elm. A burned area is also helpful. My neighbor's hot spot is around a big dead elm tree but I don't know if the spot has ever burned.

I'll stick with the easy ones, shiitake and red wine cap.

[Ellendra]

Back in when I was a kid I read a book on cultivating mushrooms. (I was a weird kid.) There’s actually something about the chemical structure of ashes that morels thrive on. The book even had photos of morels growing out of the ashes left in someone’s charcoal grill. The enclosed manufactured kind, not a fire-pit.

So yes, doing a controlled burn on your morel patch should help. But if you can’t, you can still get some benefit just by spreading ashes over the soil.