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

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!

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?

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 💕💕💕

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When they're on the sofa talking, it looks like an apology video for a "failed" kickstarter.😂

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.

So, next step, is making wine out of those mushrooms.

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.

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.

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 👍

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I got some kits from your company (blue oyster and lion’s mane) and tried scaling then up in 5-gal buckets but used 1/4” holes and they didn’t do much. Been having a problem where they grow well then stall and fizzle out. Growing in bathroom. Going to increase them to 1/2” and try again. Been using aspen shavings but going to give the straw a try for the oysters.

could newspaper and pine wood shavings work in combination? I'm just beginning to think about how to grow mushrooms, I've heard pine and other conifer woods have anti-fungal properties them, would using pine wood shavings be counter-intuitive? The newspaper I'm thinking of using uses food-grade ink, but again how food safe or viable is that, since I've heard mushrooms absorb whatever substrate they grow from.

I guess someone has to be the unlucky S.O.B., but I started my buckets with your blue oyster spawn literally the day before this video came out 😂looking forward to hopefully some success soon!

I am from India . Please provide spawn production technic too. Thanks Bro....😂

This looks like the most practical small scale or hobby grow. No autoclaves, no laminar flow hoods, no PHDs.

Followed all steps, ended up with a newborn calf.

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

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

Thank you North Spore for the outstanding video. Time now I am going to attempt with a farmer to utilize their space and can't wait. Hope to show you folks my results soon. Take care, God bless, and safe travels. Shroom on!

Hello guys. cool mushroom farm!!!! Subscribed to your channel. I watch it regularly!!! Very good technology!!! I will try this spring, since boiling is very expensive and is not applicable everywhere!!! Thank you for the cool analysis of technology!!! Good luck to you

"This, is a bucket." "Dear god..." "There's more." "No..."

Excellent work on this video! Legit step-by-step. This could not come at a better time as I am just getting started. For the the pellet method: 40ltrs water, 40lbs of wood pellets, 16lbs of soy hull, 6 lbs of spawn will fill how many buckets? Do you have a preference on pellets vs straw? Do you have any best practices for cleaning your buckets? I am trying to target restaurants as I feel I could scale easily as I add customers -- do you recommend sticking with a single type of oyster at first or diversify from the beginning? Is there a type of oyster you saw as the most sought after for restaurants?

That's so cool I'm going to buy some north spore , those shrooms looked so delicious. I'm sure a lot of restaurants owners around here would buy from me if I could grow them pretty as those are

Excellent video. Now I know what I'm going to do with my 22 litre wine buckets.

2 questions: - I share my trade secrets with anyone interested as well, because I believe in nature and people, why do YOU do it? - What are you going to do with the plenty of water (minute 22:25) after removing and draining the straws?

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

I currently have pink oyster growing in straw in garden. And waiting on winecaps in another area of yard. I want to start maybe blue oyster in buckets. Is there a bad time to begin this? I am in zone 6, and have a good 2-3 months of warm weather left. I also have a good garage or basement if needed. Thank you

😢 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.

Great video. I've got a sawmill and will have tons of sawdust. I'm hoping to grow lionsmane and TT right now. I'll be using totem for most but hope to use bucket method for the lionsmane. I look forward to more of your videos.

Bom dia! Obrigado! Pelo conhecimentos de vocês,adoramos o vídeo,somos do Brasil e vamos colocar em prática o que vocês ensinaram,poderia passar relação do material usado no composto! abraços

After adding hydrated lime to the substrate, should I wait some time before adding the mushroom spawn?

For sometime now I was planning for something to do by myself, to earn extra cash coz as I'm struggling for too long...as soon as I have some cash saved I'm going to give this a try & hopefully it works out. Thank you 'North Spore' for your detailed video.

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

What do you do with the remaining lime h20? Have you noticed anything with photo period? I assume they respond to light. Have you experimented with any specific light spectrums that mushrooms may prefer like they might encounter in their natural environment? I'm speaking specifically for Indoor of course. Thanks for this vid.

I am curious, how much does the hydrated lime method restrict you in your species/strain selection. Ie what can and cant you grow using this tek?

Why lime? if your goal is to increase the pH then why not sodium hydroxide? i could be wrong but i would imagine it to be cheaper, specially if you could buy it in large quantities.

Hello! I’m new to this.. couple of questions please if I may. Is the oyster the best for monetising commercially? Does this also work for shittake? Once you’ve picked the mushrooms from the bucket does it carry on producing any further mushrooms or is one harvest your lot? Do the harvest each hole at different times? Lastly how much weight of sellable mushrooms on average are you getting from one 5ltr bucket once completed and what’s the start to finished length of time? THANK YOU VERY MUCH BORG

im growing oyster mushrooms in my closet and lions mane using this method in Baltimore. so worth it!

I always thought you had to put the Hydrated Lime into water first, then add that to the substrate. Mixing the lime right in provides the same outcome? Thanks!

Great information, thank you all.

Wonderful, now can you do such a video for Shitake? :)

Do you test to find out if the kiln dried straw you're using contains persistent herbicides like Grazon?

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you very much for the great video! Much appreciated!

Easily the best mushroom growing video on the internet.

Great video, but 2 things you did not address. Growing Oyster indoors, and the spore load. People have gotten sick from breathing spores without protection, and several buckets worth inside your house will surely leave a mess. The other thing is how do you clean out the buckets. I grew in 1 bucket once, and it seem the straw & mycelium glue themselves to the wall of the buckets. It was very time consuming to clean 1 bucket, and still then it was never really clean. Nice to learn a little about how North Spore came to be.

Thank you -- so much better information than your competitors

Paint your buckets. They'll break down and become brittle when exposed to the sun very quickly.

Could you tie the retired bucket contents like a collar around a tree and let it attach and grow naturally? Just a thought

Out of curiosity, have you tried mixing the two substrates? Fungi in my experience need a delicate balance of nitrogen to carbon sources. Does the straw have a bit higher than the sawdust blend for nitrogen? What are the yield differences? You mentioned the saw dust takes a bit longer to pin out.

Amazing video, but i suggest protection for your eyes! ✌

WE GROW OUR POP-CORN IN EXACTLY THE SAME MANNER - HIGHER YIELD, MORE KERNELS POP, HAVE ENOUGH LEFT OVER TO SELL TO THE LOCAL MOVIE PALACE - WONDERFUL VIDEO!!!!!!!!

This is definite interesting and pleasant to watch. Although I won't go a big scale as you do, but still fun to watch. Question: how many flushes you often get from a bucket? Thanks for sharing?

Amazing video! I find mushrooms so fascinating. One question I've always had is, how does the size of the bucket/substrate relate to yield? Why a 5 gallon bucket over a 1 gallon? And if more substrate equals higher yield, why not go bigger bucket? As far as I understand it, once the colony runs out of food it fruits. So does the size of the colony when that happens equal a higher yield? And ia it not worth it to go too big of a bucket because it takes to long to run out. So many questions hahhaha. Thanks for the awesome video! Please keep em coming.

When you add hydrated lime to the hardwood mix...do you have to have to rinse before adding the grain spawn? Will the hydrated lime in the hardwood mix kill the oyster mushroom grain spawn?

In your area, what are typical prices for mushrooms? How much do they wholesale for? How many pounds can you grow on a bucket? Are the prices seasonal or stable year round?

What is the tent thing you've used during the inoculation phase? Oh, a Stealth Tent ⛺ Where do I get such a thing?

Nice video. I would consider putting the blocks on the top of that IBC tote and then using ratchet straps to push the bags down so you don't have to stand on top of it.

I have a question! How many Lbs of dry/wet substrate/straw/hardwood do you use Per 5gallon bucket? Thanks!

Every educational video, thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge to us all 👍👍👍

Out of curiosity do you know the pH of the water after the straw was removed? Could the water be used for more than one set?

Beautiful guide, bravo guys.

Brilliant video chaps. Will be trying this method myself.

Awesome video. Basically doing this same setup, just in the tropics. How did you deal with pests (gnats/fruit flies)?

Very informative and a very easy method over the traditional pressure cooker method for pasteurization. I am going to give it a try and see if i can succeed in growing some tasty treats for myself.

Excellent tutorial!! Also, love that barn. Please send a link to the plans if you can. I have a portable saw mill and looking to make a barn with all native lumber from the land. Thanks!

This was one topic, that was REALLY COOL!

So cool! How did I just find your channel? Subscribed. This video is excellent, beginning to end.

In the winter time go to retirement homes cuz they throw away tons of buckets that are just used for salt

What would be good is if you had explain how much it cost for the psyllium and lime and gave the shop price of the mushrooms collected. As it happens I have no idea of the cost benefit. Interesting video though.

I bought lion’s mane from you. I’m planning on upscaling and this video was absolutely valuable. I’m from New England but went to warmer weather.

In my country soy hull pallets are banned and hardwood fuel pallets hard hard to find in the region im in, so is there any other recipe you can give with softwood fuel pallets(pine) and somethingni can combine with ?

ola.... boa tarde... aqui 01/01/24. assistindo pela segunda vez.... estou iniciando no mesmo processo de pasteurizacao e colonizacao em baldes. igualzinho. kkkkk

How 4 pounds dry, 12 pounds wet and 70% are connected?! I have no idea for what this formula is, but it is not a hydration. Hydration with named weights is 300% 12wet/4dry=3 *100%= 300%. Weight of water is 3 times more than weight of dry substrate. And I highly doubt that from 4 pounds dry you will get 12 wet. Rather 4*1.7= 6.8pounds. 1.7 is factor (100% dry +70% water).

What do you do with all of that water that you have added the lime to after you soak your bags? Do you filter and reuse any of it or do you allow it to evaporate and reuse the lime?

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

A bit confused, where are the mushroom seeds?

Hey, just had a quick question. I grow oyster mushrooms at home for personal consumption and use coco coir as substrate which i sterilize in hot water and have been getting awesome results for the past 3 years. My question is that do different substrates produce different yields or is it the same for all the substrates?? I wanted to know this because i sometimes feel that the clusters of mushrooms that i grow aren't very big as compared to to the ones i see on youtube

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience

With the hydratedlime bath the left over water solution is that reusable to a certain degree or does it have to be completely fresh every time?

What size is that cement mixing container.? The one I found is 7 gallons, but looks much smaller. I don't want to overflow.

22:22 with all due respect to these two gentlemen who are teaching me so much i didnt know but just one idea that came up: if you packed the straw bags into the container and secured them down first with a metal grid and then added the lime solution on top you wouldnt have to surf on them to submerge them. Also you could take the guessing work out of the creation of your lime solution and just measure the water and the lime to get it right quickly everytime. This would also tell you how much water, lime and straw you need which could make your cost calculations more predictable.

Love this! Did it last year and got so many mushrooms but we realized after we could have gotten so many more because our straw was too wet. (We did the boil/steam method. Gonna do lime this year) Are your mesh bags the 10lbs ones or the 60lbs ones?

One of the best videos I have seen on the subject. Thanks for the practical tips!

I would put the state bags in first then pour lime water over and toét them soak from bottom up….snd you don’t have to climb in and push the bags down…or at least, not as much work.

This video is gonna help me a lot, I never thought hydrated lime could also work on wood pellets, I was like this method only works on straw..😅😅

My local ice cream place can't give them away as fast as they empty them. They feel bad about the plastic waste and were really happy to give me some. I'm saving some for our potatoes and to collect maple syrup.

Why not use the used substrate after fruiting to colonize new, fresh substrate? Shouldn’t it be possible to reuse it over and over again so you only need buy initial starter colony once?

I loved the information then the process flow from beginning to the end. You are very educational. Try to be a bit more enthusiastic about the great work you are doing.

Surprised that nothing is automated or optimized for speed. I fully expected the buckets to be cleaned by a similar machine to what is used for glasses in bars, and the grow media to be produced in a kitchen-like environment with large, sterile, steel vats.

Thanks for the great video guys👍kick-ass!!!

Thanks! Great stuff. I look forward to trying this.

Instead oof a flat-top mixing table have you thought to get a "tough table" with sides high enough to prevent the volume you are mixing from cascading over the side...

Hey guys. Im watching this vid right now. Ideas for you. For the ibc. You can put eye bolts on top of the frame. Then use 2x12 to make a square about 4-5 inches smaller than the ibc top. All u got to do is use fast tow straps to submerge the bags of straw! For the spawn mixing you can get a giant compost that spins and has large door with a drain. Just ideas. If you use them i like magic mushrooms and xxl shirts lol