Bins vs Bags: Which is Better For Growing Mushrooms?

Growing your own mushrooms is easier than ever thanks to the ever-evolving industry of grow kits and grow bags, which allow you to simply inoculate your substrate with spores or liquid cultures, conveniently sold in a syringe, and watch your favorite varieties of magic mushrooms grow before your very eyes.  Mushroom grow kits offer a legal way to enjoy the entire process from beginning to end, and come in more options than ever before, ranging from the most basic to the most high-tech choices.

One of the most common debates among mycology enthusiasts is which type of vessel is best for growing these mushrooms: in a bag, or in a bin?  Let’s compare the two, because this is one of the most important decisions you will have to make as you embark on your new mushroom-growing hobby.

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Choosing the Right Vessel for Growing Your Mushrooms

When doing some research on mushroom cultivation from home, you will likely come across all kinds of pieces of advice from avid enthusiasts pertaining to what you should be growing those mushrooms in, i.e., bags, buckets, mason jars, plastic bins, etc.  For the sake of this piece, we will be focusing on the two most popular choices bags and bins, both of which come with plenty of clear advantages.  

When choosing the right vessel, you will need to consider certain things like:

• How much space you have to grow in your home.
• How large of a yield you want.
• How sterile the vessel material is.
• How capable the material is of handling the necessary temperature and light conditions for your mushrooms to thrive.
• How durable the vessel is.
• How environmentally friendly the vessel is.

With that being said, let’s compare mushroom bags and bins, and see which one might suit your needs the best.

Mushroom Bags 

Mushroom bags are incredibly popular, and thus, can be sold on their own (with substrate already in them in most cases), or sold as “spawn bags,” which conveniently arrive pre-inoculated, so you can just place them in the right growing environment and allow them to do their thing with no syringe necessary.  

Mushroom bags can contain any kind of substrate there is, and each substrate is ideal for certain mushroom varieties, so that’s something you’ll want to pay attention to.  

All of these bags share certain features in common:

• Gusseted: Their gusseted design refers to how they’re folded, to secure the contents inside, which is why they all have the same shape.  This allows them to stand up straight without being knocked over easily, and to prevent the contents from spilling out of the sides.
• Polypropylene: These bags are made from a plastic material called, “polypropylene” – able to handle high temperatures.  It’s also a sterile material, and that is critical, since it prevents contamination from ruining the mushrooms.  We know that plastic isn’t everyone’s favorite material, but more environmentally friendly materials just can’t handle the sterilization process required to keep mushrooms contaminant-free.
• Autoclavable: You might be wondering why high temperatures would factor in when it comes to using a mushroom bag, but there’s a simple reason: it allows the substrate inside the bag to be fully sterilized before it’s inoculated, and this is a high-temp process.  Other types of bag materials would simply melt, making them useless.  Autoclavable means that the bag can handle being placed inside an autoclave, which is a sterilizing machine that applies pressured steam to the material to kill contaminants.
• Filtered: All grow bags feature a filter patch, which is a fine mesh portion of the bag that allows air to get into the substrate (proper airflow is essential to prevent mold and allow proper growth), while keeping out contaminants and plant life that can end up making their way into the substrate.

Mushroom grow bags have a lot of advantages over other types of growing vessels.  These bags tend to be single-use, which may be an advantage if you’re looking for a low-maintenance, non-committal relationship with mushroom cultivation.  Also, you can easily cut holes into the bag as the mushroom tendrils begin to develop, unlike with many other vessel types.  They’re also very easy to see inside of, to track the progress of the mycelium (root structure).

Mushroom grow bags also allow you to easily mix the spawn into the substrate, simply by squeezing and shaking the bag until it’s well-incorporated.  As a nice bonus, mushroom bags are super cheap when it comes to cost, and a fantastic option for beginners in particular.

But, one thing to be aware of is that certain substrates can’t fit into bags, such as, of course, logs.  And, there aren’t any substrates that require a bag as opposed to another type of vessel, such as a bin.

Mushroom Bins

Then, you can use a mushroom bin, which is just another word for a plastic or glass container.  Because bins come in unlimited sizes, this is great if you’re growing lots and lots of mushrooms, and thus, need very large vessels to enjoy multiple fruitful yields at once.  Of course, because bins can be reused unlike bags, they also offer a more environmentally friendly option.  And, people do note that growing in bins tends to yield more consistent results, which is a plus, since you can enjoy a more uniform harvest.

Of course, bins are typically more of an investment when it comes to cost, especially if you’re using glass ones as opposed to plastic ones.  And, they do take up more space, so that’s something to consider if you want to generally keep your operations small due to space issues in your home.  

Another thing that cultivators find is that mushroom bags allow colonization to take place more quickly, mostly because of how easy it is to distribute the spawn throughout a bag thanks to its flexible nature.  It’s a bit harder to do this with a bin.

Bin or Bag: Which Will You Choose?

Ultimately, choosing between a bin and a bag is, once again, one of many important decisions you will need to make before cultivating your first yield of mushrooms, and it’s one that must be considered carefully.  Each method has its pros and cons, and neither is objectively better than the other.  Luckily, with mushroom-growing becoming such a popular hobby around the world these days, you can find plenty of helpful information about choosing between the two by doing research and making your decision with plenty of info at your fingertips.

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