A mono tub is a popular method for cultivating mushrooms, especially for larger yields. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up your own mono tub.
Supplies You’ll Need
- Clear plastic storage tub (35 liters or similar size)
- Drill with a bit or hole saw (1-2โ size)
- Sticky Tape
- Measuring Tape
- Marker
- Micropore tape (for air exchange during fruiting)
Instructions
Choosing the Right Tub
Best tub size to contain humidity is 24L, Go upto 40 Liter, bigger tubs than 40L have to be really intricately designed otherwise most of the time they do take long time to colonise, produce lot of heat, do not maintain humidity well , wasting all your effort. If you need more mushrooms, have multiple tubs.
The tub should be deep enough to hold a substrate depth of 3.5 inches and also mushroom from the surface can grow upto 15cm.
Marking and Drilling Holes
On the longer side of the tub, drill two holes, positioned 3.5 inches up from the bottom and about 4 inch in from the corners. This ensures that after adding your substrate, the holes will be just above the surface of the substrate. On the shorter sides, drill one hole at the top center of each side. For taller tubs, position these holes 5 inches above the ones on the longer side. This is whole where excess heat and will pass through.
Tip: When drilling, operate the drill in reverse; this technique reduces the likelihood of the plastic cracking. or do it very slowly.
Tip: Sand the holes to make it even.
Taping the Tub
On the inside of the tub place sticky tape over the holes. Now is a good time to wash the inside of your tub with some warm water and dish soap, don’t forget to wash the lid. Sanatise the tub with iso propyl alcohol.
Preparing for Colonisation
After your tub has dried prepare the room you will be working in by wiping down your work bench and making sure fans are off. While this step can be done anywhere inclluding outside, if we can reduce the chance for contaminates we may aswell make the extra effort.
Preparing the Substrate
Now you are ready for to add your substrate and spawn! Do not forget the sticky tape would need to be removed during the fruiting stage and replaced with monotub filters a or Micropore tape.
For those not looking to build one youself but instead want a ready made tub we have 2 types.Inflatable Monotub and Max yield monotub kit.
Director of Rootlab
