There many different containers you can grow mushrooms in. Often times, plastic totes and storage containers are used. In small-scale grows, glass mason jars. Another less popular choice for small-to-medium grows is growing mushrooms in a bucket.
Buckets also make for a good grow option, as they stack easily and will contain each contents of the buckets from each other. Buckets also have handles, making them easy for transportation.
Large plastic buckets can work well for all types of mushroom growing, including commercial and outdoor grows. Read our breakdown here on using buckets to grow mushrooms in.
Preparing your Bucket Grow
If you are using a bucket to grow mushrooms, you will want to prepare the bucket accordingly.
You will need to take a large 5-gallon plastic bucket, such as a home depot bucket, and you will drill holes around the outside. The bucket should look just like these buckets in this large-scale grow:
The holes in these buckets are where the mushrooms will grow from when they are fruiting.
The holes should be about 1.0-1.5 inches wide. It’s important to get this right so that the mushrooms have the right amount of space to be able to grow out of the holes. You can see the holes are spaced out evenly, this is also important to keep the integrity of the bucket.
Growing mushrooms in a bucket has the added benefit of making it easy to harvest when it’s fruiting time. You will simply cut away where from where the mushrooms are growing out of the hole.
Buckets are also very easy to transport, and they stack on top of each other. This makes using buckets to grow mushrooms very efficient as well as convenient. Using buckets is a great choice for growing inside a shed or other small mushroom grow room.
Additional Tips: Growing Mushrooms in a Bucket
If you’re growing outdoors, then use this guide in conjunction with our guide on growing mushrooms outside.
In general, you will need the typical mushroom growing supplies such as a mushroom growing substrate. This can be a manure/grain mix, wheat straw, or a mix of those substrates. You will also need mushroom spores that can be easily purchased online. We recommend Amazon for shopping for mushroom spores.
The mushroom growing substrate will fill the bucket, and once that is prepared you will add your spores and then simply wait for the mushroom mycelium to colonize the substrate and then fruit mushrooms out of the bucket holes.
Research the rest of our website and online to figure out the best type of substrate for your mushrooms. Read our guide on all types of mushroom substrates here.
You may be wondering about re-using buckets for multiple grows. This is no problem. In between mushroom grows, you can simply wash out the buckets with soap and water to completely decontaminate them and get them ready for the next grow. Buckets are fully re-usable!
