diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 3be6778b7d..96499371b5 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -12609,7 +12609,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "prometheus-client 0.22.3",
  "rand",
  "rayon",
- "schnellru",
  "schnorrkel",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
diff --git a/crates/subspace-farmer/Cargo.toml b/crates/subspace-farmer/Cargo.toml
index 4d83aa4f26..766d38b23b 100644
--- a/crates/subspace-farmer/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/subspace-farmer/Cargo.toml
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ pin-project = "1.1.5"
 prometheus-client = "0.22.3"
 rand = "0.8.5"
 rayon = "1.10.0"
-schnellru = "0.2.3"
 schnorrkel = "0.11.4"
 serde = { version = "1.0.110", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1.0.128"
@@ -67,7 +66,7 @@ supports-color = { version = "3.0.1", optional = true }
 tempfile = "3.13.0"
 thiserror = "2.0.0"
 thread-priority = "1.1.0"
-tokio = { version = "1.40.0", features = ["macros", "parking_lot", "rt-multi-thread", "signal", "time"] }
+tokio = { version = "1.40.0", features = ["macros", "parking_lot", "rt-multi-thread", "signal", "sync", "time"] }
 tokio-stream = { version = "0.1.16", features = ["sync"] }
 tracing = "0.1.40"
 tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3.18", features = ["env-filter"], optional = true }
diff --git a/crates/subspace-farmer/src/farmer_cache.rs b/crates/subspace-farmer/src/farmer_cache.rs
index 4c749f34cb..07d1fd686d 100644
--- a/crates/subspace-farmer/src/farmer_cache.rs
+++ b/crates/subspace-farmer/src/farmer_cache.rs
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ use subspace_networking::libp2p::PeerId;
 use subspace_networking::utils::multihash::ToMultihash;
 use subspace_networking::{KeyWithDistance, LocalRecordProvider};
 use tokio::runtime::Handle;
+use tokio::sync::Semaphore;
 use tokio::task::{block_in_place, yield_now};
 use tracing::{debug, error, info, info_span, trace, warn, Instrument};
 
@@ -539,12 +540,18 @@ where
         self.handlers.progress.call_simple(&0.0);
         let piece_indices_to_store = piece_indices_to_store.into_iter().enumerate();
 
+        let downloading_semaphore = &Semaphore::new(SYNC_BATCH_SIZE * SYNC_CONCURRENT_BATCHES);
+
         let downloading_pieces_stream =
             stream::iter(piece_indices_to_store.map(|(batch, piece_indices)| {
                 let downloaded_pieces_count = &downloaded_pieces_count;
                 let caches = &caches;
 
                 async move {
+                    let mut permit = downloading_semaphore
+                        .acquire_many(SYNC_BATCH_SIZE as u32)
+                        .await
+                        .expect("Semaphore is never closed; qed");
                     debug!(%batch, num_pieces = %piece_indices.len(), "Downloading pieces");
 
                     let pieces_stream = match piece_getter.get_pieces(piece_indices).await {
@@ -580,6 +587,8 @@ where
                                 continue;
                             }
                         };
+                        // Release slot for future batches
+                        permit.split(1);
 
                         let (offset, maybe_backend) = {
                             let mut caches = caches.lock();
@@ -639,10 +648,13 @@ where
                     }
                 }
             }));
+
         // Download several batches concurrently to make sure slow tail of one is compensated by
         // another
         downloading_pieces_stream
-            .buffer_unordered(SYNC_CONCURRENT_BATCHES)
+            // This allows to schedule new batch while previous batches partially completed, but
+            // avoids excessive memory usage like when all futures are created upfront
+            .buffer_unordered(SYNC_CONCURRENT_BATCHES * 2)
             // Simply drain everything
             .for_each(|()| async {})
             .await;