It's too early for subs just yet my friends, but with the sudden drop in temps of late and the very wet summer/early autumn, we could possibly see them starting to fruit between the Peninsula near Melbourne and Wilson's Prom around late March. That will be the absolute earliest on the mainland as the sunlight hours are still a little too long and it's just not cold enough at this stage.
Wait until we get a solid week of 6'ish degree nights and day time temps drop down to 16'ish. Add that to a decent rain event and we should be seeing subs in 3-6 weeks (fingers crossed).
Don't be surprised if it's late April/early or even mid May before we see any in our area's on the mainland, this is the normal start of season so chill out and let mother nature work through it's cycle. I'm definitely putting my money on large fruiting events taking place in Tas within the next few weeks and it could possibly happen within 2 weeks, as, the current weather events down there are about perfect for the reproductive cycle of the sub's mycelium to start working it's magic
So all in all, it's not long now, but don't go jumping the gun. All you will find for the next month or so will be other species of fungus which start to reproduce much earlier and in warmer temps than the subs. The subs are one of the last mushroom species to fruit, so follow my above info and don't go out hunting 'just because you saw other species of mushrooms coming up all over the place'. It will only bring disappointment for the time being.
I will let you all know when they start to fruit in the southern most regions of Vic and from that point onward they will fruit across Vic and southern NSW/ACT within weeks, followed by SA in 4-8 weeks and lastly over in southern WA around late June/July.
And yes rsrkt, they hang around all day. Don't believe the myths and other bullshit from the uninformed. Do your own research and find out the facts for yourself. There are so many 'old wives tales' surrounding mushrooms that just boggle the mind once you know the facts. The only (slight) issue with hunting later in the day is that 'some' (a very tiny amount of) Psilocybin in the mushrooms which are in sunny area's 'could' possibly be broken down by sunlight. Other than that, there is no issue hunting at any time of the day. They live for anywhere from 4-10 days on average and they grow slower later in the season as the conditions deteriorate into mid winter and they find it harder to survive. If the area in which you hunt has a lot of mushroom hunting traffic then it may be wise to get in early, otherwise the mushrooms will hang around until they have dropped all their spores and then die.
I love talking about mushrooms tihehehe
