I just tried this, worked well. One thing I have found is that aspen chips are way easier to work with and far less likely to contam. You can find them in any pet store dirt cheap.
I agree that its a very useful method for growing mushrooms on commercial level. But the most important question in this method is that how to know about the colonization and any of the contenimation in the bucket. Because buckets are made of hard plastic and usually they are made in solid colors. If you plz ans i'll be grateful to you. Thanks.
So my husband and I want to try this for mushrooms for ourselves. We had the great privilege of eating Oyster mushrooms for the first time and fell in love. We live in Virginia and i was wondering what type you would recommend?
👆 that's the IG handle of the dealer that ships to me here in LA I was scared at first but when I received my package I was so ecstatic because it was worth the $
The oyster mushrooms are aggressive enough that they will outcompete most airborne molds that would try to get in through the holes. Towards the end of the bucket's life you might start to see some mold as the mycelium has weakened, but you shouldn't have that make an appearance for your first several flushes!
Hi there! thank you so much for this. when you say it will continue producing for 2-3 months, do I have to start the process again or i just harvest and keep the bucket in the same some (60-70 degrees and light) and it continues producing?
I just got my buckets packed and I am so excited to see how they do. I am curious to know, if anyone has tried adding more straw later when they stop producing mushrooms? Would they come back or no?
It's pretty impossible using this method in the SW as the air is just too dry. I had success putting my bucket in larger container and putting a layer of water in the bottom for moisture.
I agree with t00bgazer. Don’t attempt that from buckets. Use your spawn jars to transfer. I usually use 3 solid spawn qts per 5 gallon bucket. Well we all know a 22 qt pressure cooker holds 7 quarts. So if you start with 2 syringes of mycelium/spores/etc and use 2 to make the 7 jars = about 3 ml per jar and that will get your oyster spawn going good and fast. A few weeks. So now you have 7 qts of oyster spawn but you need 9 to make 3 buckets nicely. So make you 2 buckets of straw & oyster shrooms and take your last 7th jar and transfer to make 2 more jars of spawn out of it so you’ll have 3 more jars in a week or so. Then make your 3rd bucket of oyster mushrooms. You could do this easily once with every solid jar of spawn. That’s if you have time, space in your lab, and materials. But this basic math formula works and don’t push it trying to get 3,4 times the spawn jars. 2x is good and you won’t fail. Find worthy suppliers for your cultures to spawn. Help them as well by giving business and you will flourish in oyster mushrooms. Experiment with all kinds.
I am absolutely in love with your video 😍😍😍 I am Canadian in Montreal right now but planning to move to South America. I was wondering if the spawn is available there? When oneself does not have access to spawn, how do they start a bucket? And I mean the spawn companies how do they produce it? Wouah such an intriguing world!!!! It's been my dream to grow shrooms since forever !
How much grain spawn do you recommend using per 5 gallon bucket? I see conflicting reports on this... Some say 1 pound of grain spawn, others say 4 or 5 pounds. Thank you for any information you can provide!
I would say 1lb to start if you're using pasteurized straw. If you aren't pasteurizing the straw or are using aspen shavings I would start with 2lbs per bucket. Generally the more spawn you use the faster you'll see the first mushrooms, but you'll have less buckets and therefore less overall yield. So there's no wrong answer, it just depend what you're looking for!
Can you explain your incubation part? where did you store it? in a dark area garage? what was the humidity and temp ranges when you were incubating the bucket? did you cover the holes?
The bucket was stored in a room with some light, but for incubation light doesn't make too much of a difference. The humidity ranges from anywhere from 40-80% (humidity and light are more important to narrow down with fruiting) and the temperature should range around 70-75 degrees. We did not cover the holes, but if your incubation area is dry it would hurt to lightly cover the bucket with a plastic bag.
Incredible video. Love that this process seems so much easier than what I was planning to attempt previously. Curious on a couple things though. Roughly how much straw went into each bucket? Also, how much pounds of mushrooms did it come out to per flush on average?
1 bale of straw will get you about 10-12 buckets. However, bales of straw vary in size as well as compactness, so that number could be plus or minus a few. The first flush will give you approximately 2 pounds, with each subsequent fruiting being a little smaller than the last.
@@FieldandForestProducts Awesome, thank you so much for the fast reply! I subd btw. Glad to see the bale goes a long way. I feel like 2 pounds feels kinda low for such a large container? I'm trying to maximize the amount of buckets I can fit in a small space to get yields per week for a small scale local farm. Any chance you attempted in smaller size buckets? I'm thinking they can get similar yields in the beginning but with a lot less total fruiting time?
@@michaeldania439 If you put more holes in the bucket you would get a higher initial yield. The only issue is that space is limited for the oysters to actually grow out, so they will grow onto each other and get a little squished. You can use smaller buckets, but you would want them to be narrower more so than shorter for faster yields. Something that may be more beneficial for you operation would be growing oysters in polyethylene sleeves, which are narrower.
@@FieldandForestProducts Gotcha. Yeah in reality I need to experiment and see what I can get working best in my scenario, mainly just looking for insight from people far more experienced than me, so beyond appreciate all your advice. I was hoping to stay away from the sleeves as I feel I'm far too capable of tearing the bags, so wanted to eliminate my stupidity from being a factor lmao plus really enjoy the reusable factor in the buckets. Rather make a one time payment of X amount of buckets and call it a day, not having to resupply bags and worry about suppliers running out, shipping times delayed, etc. Thank you again!
I love your video! As someone who has not grown a mushroom patch before, I have a question… What would happen if I didn’t harvest the Mushrooms and just let them keep growing?
They mushrooms will eventually stop growing and dry up. Generally we recommend harvesting before the oysters drop their spores otherwise you'll have a fine white dusting on everything around your oysters!
Hey, nice video! Let me ask you something: how would you clean the bucket after it’s done? I’m thinking in a mid scale production to provide for my neighborhood, and hoping doing this in a efficient and easy way, wasting the less plastic and water possible.. thank you
I would simply wash the bucket out with soap and water. Afterwards you can spritz the bucket with a diluted bleach solution just to make sure there is not leftover contamination, but usually soap and water does the trick!
Great content!! One quick question for the mushroom lover: I'm placing micropore tape on the holes, anyone knows if I need to manually remove them after full colinization, or the pins have enough strengh to remove it by itself?
@@FieldandForestProducts Got it!! So for scale production is not an option. Best option would be covering the buckets with black plastic bags, in that case. What do you think? Thanks so much for the answer!!
We have never done this technique using liquid culture, but in theory, yes it should work. The biggest concern is that the liquid will just pool at the bottom of the bucket instead of being evenly spread throughout the straw.
It stays hydrated enough just with the pasteurization. Once the bucket starts pinning you will need to move it to a location with more humidity, but during that initial period you will not need to mist it.
@@FieldandForestProducts Thank you, I've misted mine a few times, but I'll leave it alone now. I can see through some of the holes that the mycelium is growing, so I'll just be patient and let it do it's thing.
Yes, if it's a light rain they will be ok. They will likely be more saturated than usual, but the bigger concern would be temperature rather than humidity in this case!
You will want to have straw- hay is a little too nitrogen rich. You can usually get straw from a local farmer, otherwise you can grow oyster mushrooms in Aspen shavings (we will have a video on that technique coming soon :)
As you may have discovered, buckets are easiest to scrub clean with a little soapy water right after they are emptied. A quick spritz of a light bleach solution after rinsing out the inside is also an alternative.
@@FieldandForestProducts I'm new to this and got two different strains of oyster grain spawn from you a couple of days ago. What is it that increases the time between fruiting? Is it something to do with access to nutrition or the mycelium needing to further establish?
@@roccoreid2842 You got it! It's the access to nutrition. The first few fruitings are taking advantage of the easy sugars and once those are used up the fungus has to work on the more difficult to digest things such as lignin.
@@FieldandForestProducts Sweet! Thank you so much! I'm about to get started on my Pink Oyster Grain Spawn in a bucket. Any other suggested videos I should watch before moving forward? Oh, and I'm using Aspen wood chips. That's good right?
@@roccoreid2842 if you're growing the pink on straw we would recommend watching "Choosing Straw for Oyster Mushroom Cultivation" but other than that you should be good to go! And if you have any questions as you go through the process always feel free to give us a call!
With sterilization you would certainly want to wear gloves. With pasteurization you certainly can, and we recommend at least washing your hands beforehand, but usually the amount of potential contaminants on your hands is no more than what is already in the straw.
@@mainanduyu3763 We don't water the bucket at all, if you do water it while in a humid environment it tends to mold. If you are in a more arid environment you can sprinkle the bucket but I would do no more than one time a day.
Oysters are far and away the most productive this way. Some people have grown shiitake on sawdust in buckets but we find the yield to be less than satisfactory. As for amount of holes there is quite a bit of wiggle room but we aim for about 20 holes.
I'm not sure which will work, but I know lions mane wont. There is not enough contact surface area between the fruiting body and the substrate to support the weight.
@@amymay1215 Possibly, but I would be worried about it drying out too fast unless you had a very well-controlled environment. As opposed to a block in a plastic bag, where you can cut a large opening but the flaps will cover most of the surface most of the time until the fruit breaks through.
Not for this method! The straw is hydrated enough that you do not have to worry about it drying out, and the inoculation rate is high enough that you should not have to worry about contaminants.
Growing Oyster mushrooms and Lion's Mane is a different process. Lion's Mane does not grow well on straw and prefers a pasteurized or sterilized sawdust substrate mix.
Depending on what mushroom strain you are using it can sometime outcompete the green mold, but largely it's something you want to avoid as it will decrease productivity.
It will if your pasteurization is top-notch. You will still get growth, but it will take longer to produce and you will likely have some contamination issues sooner as well.
