Mushroom cultivation and harvesting in media supported by 3D-printed anisotropic elastic structures

Mushrooms grow so fast during the harvest season that they can double in size in a day. However, the soft and fragile nature of mushrooms makes manual harvesting of domestic brand varieties a necessity. Therefore, an important industrial issue in the efficiency of mushroom cultivation in Japan is how to make mushrooms easy to harvest and grow. The technical elements of mushroom harvesting are (1) non-damaging harvesting methods, (2) control of colony growth, and (3) expansion of growing area. This study proposes a three-dimensional and deformable culture medium to solve the problems (1)–(3). The proposed three-dimensional medium has a 3D-printed anisotropic elastic well structure embedded inside. The medium keeps the medium in a three-dimensional shape and allows mushrooms to be generated from the sides and bottom. In addition, we show that during the harvesting period, by applying pressure to the medium in a single direction. The soil can be removed from each side of the mushrooms and the mushrooms can be harvested.