Growing Mushrooms in Buckets! Step-by-Step Guide to the Bucket Technique (Bucket Tek / Tech)

Growing mushrooms on buckets is one of the easiest techniques for growers wanting consistent flushes of mushrooms on a routine schedule. North Spore used this technique to scale from a micro business with a handful of productive buckets to a commercial mushroom farm servicing dozens of Maine restaurants, farmer's markets, and grocery stores.

In this video, we'll show you how to start growing on buckets and scale up your operation if you're hoping to turn it into a business!

Chapters

Source & Prepare Buckets: 0:51
Pasteurize & Inoculate Straw Substrates: 4:36
Pasteurize & Inoculate Hardwood Pellets: 11:38
Incubation: 13:04
Fruiting & Harvest: 15:19
Commercial Scale Bucket Growing: 16:49
Using an Industrial Mixer: 23:26
Commercial Incubation & Fruiting: 24:29

Materials (for both processes)

- Water

Straw Buckets

- Pre-cut straw or straw bale
- Contractor garbage bins
- Hanging scale
- Hooks or bungee cords for handing bags

Sawdust Buckets

- Cement mixing tray (or something similar)

All music was provided by Epidemic Sound.

“Inside my Mind” by Rambutan

“You are all I Need” by spring gang

“Will we be Enough?” by spring gang

“Venice Sun” by Rocket Jr

“Shifting Out” by Gregory David

“Lose my Head” by Rambutan

“Sky Filled with Treasure” by Aiyo

“Diluted” by Aiyo

“Gimmie Something” by spring gang

“Spore Titan” by ELFL

[NorthSpore]

Some answers to frequently asked questions! We will continually update this list to answer questions that frequently come up.

Q: What species tolerate the high pH growing medium, can I grow x species with this method?
A: Any of the various oyster species work well (Pleurotus ostreatus, P. citrinopileatus, P. djamor, P. pulmonarious) as do Chestnut mushrooms (Pholiota adiposa). Lion's Mane (Hericium) does not tolerate a high pH growing media, but can be grown on buckets if you are using hot water pasteurization instead of the lime method. Shiitakes are not suitable to bucket growing and should be grown either on logs (outdoors using plug or sawdust spawn) or indoors utilizing filter patch mushroom bags

Q: Can I use the spent straw substrate from the buckets to inoculate more buckets?
A: Maybe, though it's not best practice. You can use the spent substrate to inoculate more substrate, however, the more times that you expand a mushroom culture to continue growing mushrooms, the more it will lose vitality and vigor. The process of the mushroom losing its vigor is called 'strain senescence'. You can't continue expanding spent substrate indefinitely, and it's probably best practice to inoculate bucket substrate with high quality spawn. That said, you can get another flush or two from old bucket straw by inoculating an outdoor bed or simply composting the mushroom straw and allowing it to fruit in your compost area

Q: What do you do with your lime bath water?
A: Lime water is not toxic, but will change the pH of the area where you dump it. We chose a grassy area we didn't mind altering the pH, diluted the lime water with fresh water, and dumped the straw water out. When we do the technique indoors, we dump our water directly into a floor drain.

Q: Can the lime water be reused for subsequent batches of straw?
A: In our production we always started with fresh water, but I see no reason you couldn't reuse your water bath one or two times as long as you check and adjust the pH (I imagine adding straw affects the pH of the water) and you make sure the water hasn't been sitting around so long that other pH tolerant microbes start to grow. If anybody has attempted this and has insight, feel free to chime in!

[ClaudiaAitaCosta]

I love that you don't only sell stuff, but also educate. Makes all the difference!

[heloisahelena]

I'm Brazilian and I love mushrooms, everything about them. in my mother tongue it's very difficult to see something so detailed about it, in other languages too, but I've NEVER SEEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS, so detailed, simple and for free !! I can't say anything more than thank you so much for this amazing video. I'm trying to start a mushroom business, and this has helped me a lot. Thanks again 💕💕💕

[barendts]

This is what I like. Low-tech pioneering in a slow-tv format. Thanks guys. This is the channel I've been looking for.

[codyshaner]

I've started my myco journey with material/culture/knowledge delivered by NorthSpore. Thanks NS team

[clixt]

Not sure why youtube recommended this to me, but it was a pleasure to watch!

[ceskiv]

One of the most informative videos on growing mushrooms in buckets. Than you, guys!

[johanpetersen]

this whole comment section is a Q&A gold mine! I love the fact that you guys are replying to almost every single question👌

[WingHouseCup]

I'm waiting on my first buckets to start fruiting. Pretty excited about that! Thanks for the great content and resources.

[Weedeater]

Maine mushrooms for the win! Great video and super informative.
The mushroom growing community is so helpful, we only succeed together.

[en]

Really appreciate your generosity in sharing this knowledge. Great production as well! Subscribed

[fionarobinson]

Great video. To stop your buckets toppling try putting a long plank of wood under every row of buckets. This will make them more stable.

[firstmighk]

This is one of THE most informative and actionable videos I've ever seen, and that's across all kinds of subject matter, not just mushrooms. Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing such valuable information! Liked, sub'd, and will def be purchasing my first spores from NS!
Dumb question: Seems like inoculating the whole substrate would lead to wasting the spore in the center of the bucket - 1. Am I way off on that? 2. If not, would there be any benefit to say, placing a vertical 4" pipe (or some other space-taking material) down the center of the bucket to make the inoculated substrate go a little further?

[jillhumphrys]

I did this a couple of years ago using cardboard boxes. It was awesome!! Need to do it again.

[SazzadAli-ug]

Easily the best mushroom growing video on the internet.

[jctorres]

Once again North Spore & Team hit's a homer !
Thanks so much for the great info.

[spartak]

Excellent video, I love how you guys simplify and show the diy home scale level of growing and then commercial scale ….. very informative great job 👍

[pavelsfera]

Subscribed. Two cool mushroom nerds making a great video on growing mushrooms. The music was pretty chill to listen to. Good set. You guys are great so it's a win/win for everybody.

[skiddysm]

😢 this was my exact plan 7 months ago. Great minds think alike. It was interesting seeing the lime with the saw dust and the bungie cords.

[befr]

Wicked man, been wanting to grow in a while and this definitely pushes me to start sooner than later. I’ll have an insulated shed soon. With a work bench and a closet size tent, I should be good to go. And now i know where to buy my spawn locally.