Rell – Predicting Where Certain Mushroom Species Might Grow

Hacker News

Share card

Rell – Predicting Where Certain Mushroom Species Might Grow

Hey HN, What is Rell? Rell is a web platform that predicts where choice-edible mushrooms like Morels and Chanterelles might grow, helping foragers figure out when and where to look. Backstory I got the idea after a truffle-hunting tour in Piedmonte, Italy; I came home wondering if we could use weather & environmental data to locate mushroom hotspots closer to home. Myself and a few friends started testing this idea with Morels in New York (our home state) and then later expanded to other species. While we didn’t tackle truffles (no dog or pig for testing!), we added our other favorites like Chanterelles, King Boletes, and Black Trumpets. Features 1. Growth Conditions Heatmap – Get a visual map of where conditions are ideal for mushrooms right now. 2. Forecast 7 Days Out – Check future conditions so you can plan trips ahead of time. 3. Mobile-Friendly – Use it on your phone or tablet while you’re out in the field. 4. Multiple Species – Morels, Chanterelles, King Boletes, and Black Trumpets. 5. Coverage – Currently focused on East Coast and Midwest states in the U.S. Under the Hood We built Rell using a few separate stacks. The front-end web app uses Typescript, React, and a PostgreSQL backend. The pipelines leverage Python, pandas, and various R scripts/packages for the data models and predictive modeling. Our system pulls in weather and environmental data from various open source APIs available in the public domain, then applies predictive models to generate heatmaps and growth forecasts. Try It Out Rell is free to use, but you’ll need to create an account: https://rell.app . We’ve tested it for the last two seasons here in New York but need more help to see how our models perform in other states. Go out and have some fun, and please share your findings! If you want to chat about tips, bugs, or discoveries, join our WhatsApp group - https://chat.whatsapp.com/IH7AsG0Jkos3S7TeKp2cDy . What’s Next? We’re planning to expand coverage to additional states and refine our prediction models over time. Thanks for reading and giving Rell a try. We hope this helps you find some tasty mushrooms on your next foraging trip!