I think Nick might have hit apon a great way to grow oyster mushrooms at Milkwood Farm – it’s a bucket full of mushrooms!
We’ve been experimenting with various techniques for growing mushrooms (mushroom bags, mushroom beds, mushroom logs) but what we’re searching for is a technique which utilizes re-usable components, is climate appropriate for our site, and yields lots of mushrooms.
Fruiting bucket’o’mushrooms in their growing location, under the loquat tree in heavy shade
On their way to the kitchen…
Nick recently hit apon the idea of using a bucket-in-a-bucket for mushroom cultivation, because we want to develop a sturdy outdoor system, with re-usable and easily accessible components, which can translate to a range of environments.
Basically, this system consists of two food-grade, identical buckets, with one lid. The inside bucket contains the substrate and mycelium, and has multiple fruiting holes drilled in it.
The outside bucket fits snugly around the inner one – providing insulation and preventing too much air (but a little) getting into the substrate while the mycelium are colonizing it.
When the substrate is fully colonised, you take the inner bucket out, stand it on the upturned outer bucket, and await the fruit (ie the mushrooms) to sprout out the holes.
Good aspects of this system:
– pre-drilled holes means you don’t have to destroy the inner bucket in order to get a flush of mushrooms.
– all the components are re-usable for many rounds of mushroom cultivation.
– the whole caboodle is robust, transportable, and slightly (every little bit counts) better insulated than thin-wall plastic mushroom bags.
– The size of the bucket means you can have lots of fruiting holes, which in turn means lots of mushrooms!
Of course, to use these, you have to already have made your grain or sawdust spawn, for which there is a how-to here. And you need your mycelium, of course.
Inside the lid of the bucket!
Oxygen-starved oyster mushrooms growing inside the lid (they have no access to fresh air in this space)…
Proud Nick with his newly devised mushroom-growing system…
Into the kitchen and ready to harvest a couple of clusters for breakfast…
The small circle is the circumference of the fruiting hole
Let’s cook it up!
Lightly sauteéd with a bit of our own olive oil, rosemary and garlic, and served with our own fresh eggs… om nom nom…
If any home-scale mushrooms growers have any thoughts on this system, we’d love to hear them!
If you’d like to learn comprehensive mushroom cultivation, we run awesome Mushroom Cultivation Courses in Sydney and beyond…
>> More mushroom cultivation resources at Milkwood.net
THAT is very exciting. Thank you so much for sharing the “fruits” of all of your labors. You are creative and inspiring.
Cheers! Well we’re really excited about mushroom growing, but we want to de-mystify it as much as we can, and figure out reasonably easy growing systems for those of us not in ideal mushroom growing environs…
this is absolutely fantastic thinking! I’m going to try it our here in Wisconsin ASAP. I’m going to use 5 gallon buckets, as I think 5 gallon buckets are one of the best things ever, maybe the only good use for plastic other then film for greenhouses. Thanks for thinking outside the box and inside the bucket.
Make sure they’re food grade buckets, and that you know what was in them previously!
Oh, and what do you think about using woodchips instead of sawdust? Much easier for me to produce.
The woodchips will take *much* longer to colonise than sawdust. Why not use straw?
yes, very good way to grow. no old used bags to throw away after they’ve finished. I’ve seen them done like this before and they do work very well. pasteurisation of substrate is usually sufficient if you use a high enough spawning rate. ‘Punkin’, a grower in NNSW had a system like this and growing them out on metal shelves covered with clear plastic sheet under the verandah at the back of his house. he them started to use an old glass fronted drinks fridge (rigged up with temp and humidity control etc) for growing them out. ….kgs of fresh… Read more »
Cheers Speedy!
Your mushroom post are so inspiring. Once I have a bit more mastery with vegetables, mushrooms are next on my list.
Thanks!
Brilliant! I haven’t started with mushrooms, but I think I’n about to ! 🙂
Cool! What wood is best//suitable? Can I use eucalyptus sawdust?
You could also try spent coffee grounds. I always have great luck with my mushrooms when I use that.
“two food-grade, identical buckets, with one lid”
Ummm…if they’re identical…how the heck do you fit one inside the other 🙁
The same way as anything with a tapered base…
hi, i’m interest to plan mushroom but totally no clue how to start. isn’t must grow in cool environment? i’m staying in asia, temperature always around 26-29 celsius. isn’t just need 3 things: food-grade bucket, substrate and mycelium? hmm… and the next steps are……? sorry i’m really noob in gardening.
Look back thru our mushrooms posts, lots of answers there!
wow, those look so trippy..and tempting. have you heard of the book mycelium running? how mushrooms can help save the world.
We’ll try straw and woodchips and see what happens…
Reblogged this on X_trous Notes.
I am growing Shiitake in logs using the dowels method, & I wondered if by planting some dowels amongst sterilised straw/ sawdust mix would the mycelium spread into the mix to produce mushrooms?
Reblogged this on Kim's Organic's Okc Blog.
Hi Kirsten & Nick do you think the mushrooms would mind square buckets I’ve got plenty,see you at the farm in October.PS Nick wait for me at the crossing,Regards Brian.
Wonder about BPA toxins from plastic buckets and if it can permeate mushroom and therefore be a toxic food source?
good idea you do best in oyster cultures 2 baskets one in side another
This looks like a great, low input way of growing oyster mushrooms for the kitchen. I have played around a bit in the past with mushroom growing and have recenty decided to give growing a regular supply of mushrooms for the kitchen a try. We live on a permaculture demonstration site so I want the system to fit in with our ethics.
Any idea of yields for those buckets, or how many buckets you think it would take to give a family of four a couple of meals a week?
Many thanks for any replies.
Nick
Awesome! This looks like something we could try. We tried drilling plugs into logs but it didn’t work. I’m not sure if its because it dried out or because we didn’t sterilize the logs or what. I’m going to read your other post on making the sawdust.
Reblogged this on SunnyRomy.
This has taken the top spot on my bucket list
I was wondering if the inoculated dowel plugs could be used in a similar way?
Pushed into the hole, if you catch my drift. Brett
im gonna venture yes. fungi isnt too picky. may just take a little longer to get started. once established you can take some out and start a new colony…. just like a bees nest! you should only have to buy spores once if you have a mild climate or indoor facility.
this tech looks awesome! i’m trying to grow my own oyster mushrooms and i’m not having very good luck. i want to have a hands-off/ low maintenance/ high yield system of growing and harvesting mushrooms. my husband is a successful mushroom grower and is gung-ho about fruiting logs in closed tupperware tubs indoors and misting several times a day. i would like to have a hands off approach and do it outdoors for better flavor… i have just a couple of questions… actually it looks more like an interview… 🙂 -did you inoculate the substrate with spawn inside the interior… Read more »
Sweet set up, I was thinking of doing something similar. We’re you misting the top daily once the mycelium colonized the entire bucket and you took it out of the other bucket? Where did you keep the bucket? Did you keep the lid on but open it everyday to mist? Thanks for sharing : )
Thank you! I’ve been looking for ways to grow oysters using something other than disposable plastic bags. I will try this as soon as I can get some matching buckets. Please continue sharing your mushroom exploits!
That is not “new”. The bucket method has been used long before he came up with it.
yep we know that, but the two-bucket system is a new way (as far as we can figure) to do the bucket system without having one-use plastics involved… and it’s new to us, either way 🙂
Great idea. Ice cream shops always have lots of buckets.
Hi Kirsten, I hope you are enjoying Tassie.
I am just about to start on growing oyster mushrooms in buckets (I have used coffee sacks, mushroom bags, boxes etc in the past). Do you know if it matters about the size of the bucket. I have a number of 2kg yogurt buckets. Are these too small and if so, why.
Thanks
Karen
Hi Karen,
I like to use 4-litre buckets, but I’ve grown a lot of mushrooms using 2-litre containers too. Smaller than 2-litres will work, but the amount of cleaning effort compared to the yield starts to become an issue. Also the smaller the container the more fluctuation in moisture levels and temperature you get, this can also impact yield. Conversely with buckets larger than 10-litres you are placing “all your eggs in one basket”. I also find large buckets hard to fit into small fruiting chambers.
OK, thanks for that, Nick. It makes sense. I have the 2litre buckets and will give them a go and look around for 4litre ones for the future.
Hello again, I hope you can give me a little more advice. I had three little harvests from the 2 litre buckets and also 5 litre buckets. They filled quickly with mycelium and popped out pretty tasty mushroom. Now I have a hard lump of whiteness in the bucket, that’s receded from the inside edges. Can I break that up and reinoculate a new substrate. I want to show you photos but cant see how I do that
I have been looking for a way to grow without plastic bags, what a great idea! Do you sterilize the substrate directly in the bucket or in something else and then transfer it to the bucket? If the latter, how do you sterilize the bucket first?
Hi guys, just wondering about how to identify mould infections when growing in buckets as thebare not transparent. How do u guys deal with this?
Do using bucket is kepping humidity better than plastic bag?
And can i just use wood chips and pasteurize it woth boilong water?
Hi steve, the oysters will far prefer to eat straw rather than woodchips…
about the same, but the buckets are reusable