METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CULTIVATING MUSHROOMS

Abstract: During the cultivation period after hyphae agitating (vegetative growth), solar rays condensed by a solar ray condensor (17) are introduced into a sealed cultivation chamber through optical fibers (8) and are radiated intermittently to mushrooms for a predetermined time. The method and apparatus of the present invention can generate an environment which is approximate to the natural cultivation environment of mushrooms. The illuminance, wavelength and radiation time of the solar rays are adjusted, whenever necessary.

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a mushroom cultivation method and apparatus which can obtain mushrooms which are not almost different from natural mushrooms by an artificial cultivation. BACKGROUND ART Heretofore, mushrooms are cultivated in artificial growing environment, for example a mushroom cultivation chamber, while actually cultivated mushrooms have a form quite different from that of wild mushrooms. The reason thereof is because a chamber hermetically sealed in a heat insulated state is used since it is necessary to control cultivation environment on the basis of temperature and humidity which are most important conditions in the artificial cultivation to the optimum state. However, it is considered that the cultivation chamber is difficult to be adjusted to natural cultivation environment by such a simple method. More particularly, in a plant cultivation field, there is known a plant cultivation apparatus which can adjust temperature and humidity to obtain an optimum growing condition as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-169425. The plant cultivation apparatus is provided with a transparent window through which the sunlight is introduced directly in order to form environment near the natural environment. However, heat of the sunlight is introduced concurrently with the introduction of the sunlight and it is very difficult to adjust the cultivation environment to the natural growing environment. On the other hand, when the natural growing environment of mushrooms is observed, most mushrooms grow in a forest and do not require the sunlight as much as that required by plants. Further, the time and interval of irradiation of the sunlight are random depending on the presence of the forest. Consequently, the conventional plant cultivation apparatus or chamber can not be quite applied to the cultivation of mushrooms. GB-A-2 140 262 discloses a method of growing plants which comprises illuminating the plants with a source of light of wavelength from 380 to 800 nn which is moved over the plants and parallel to a support for the plants to provide intermittent illumination thereof. JP-A-60 123913 (see also EP-A-130 586) discloses apparatus for plant culture comprising a solar ray collector for collecting solar rays and introducing them into one end of light conducting members, a housing for accommodating plants, and light source assemblies mounted on a single wall of the housing and each comprising an integral assembly of the other end of the light conducting members and an artificial light source. The light source assemblies are movable along the side wall of the housing to supply light intermittently to the plants. Inner surfaces of the housing may be mirror finished. The housing may be hermetically sealed. DE-A-3 434 486 mentions a lighting level of 1000 Lux for the cultivation of mushrooms, in combination with other cultivation conditions. CH-A-527 554 mentions a lighting level of a maximum 10000 Lux for the cultivation of mushrooms, in combination with other cultivation conditions. JP-A-53 127145 discloses cultivation of mushrooms using a plurality of shelves over each of which a blower is installed which travels back and forth over the shelf to ventilate the shelf. A fluorescent lamp is fixed alongside the blower, and a mobile controller is installed with the blower and lamp. Guide rails are provided for the travel of the blower and lamp. EP-A-0 195 431 discloses the collection of solar rays and guiding of the collected rays into plant nurturing containers through optical conductor cables. The cultivation of mushrooms in combination with the cultivation of plants is disclosed. The plants and the mushrooms are provided in respective chambers which are connected one to the other. Carbon dioxide generated by the mushrooms is fed to the plant cultivation chamber whilst oxygen generated by the plants is fed to the mushroom cultivation chamber. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mushroom cultivation method and apparatus which can harvest artificially cultivated mushrooms having a substantially identical form with natural mushrooms. It is another object of the present invention to provide a mushroom cultivation method and apparatus which can obtain mushrooms with small stalks in contact with a culture ground, easy harvest work, a good harvest, excellent freshness kept for a long time, characteristics of keeping from influence by the rain, mold, mud and insects, and excellent external appearance and quality. According to the present invention there is provided an apparatus for cultivating mushrooms in prepared cultivation bottles, comprising a plurality of cultivation shelves disposed in an array and holding the cultivation bottles, lighting means disposed above each of the shelves, and a movement controller for moving the lighting means in a reciprocating manner, characterised in that the apparatus comprises: a cultivation chamber sealed in a heat insulated state, within which chamber the shelves are disposed in the array on a support, holding the prepared cultivation bottles in rows in spaced relationship, which bottles are for containing mushroom spawn which has been subjected to a scrambling operation, a sunlight introducing device disposed outside said chamber, said sunlight introducing device including a sunlight concentration device for collecting sunlight, an intermittently irradiating device, said irradiating device including a mounting plate assembly, said assembly including a vertically positioned support plate and a plurality of mounting plates, said mounting plates being disposed generally horizontally and being connected to said support plate, one of said mounting plates being disposed above each of said cultivation shelves, said assembly being movable in a reciprocating manner in the horizontal direction, a plurality of optical fibers, each of said fibers having a first end and a second end, said optical fibres extending from said first ends located to receive light at said sunlight introducing device through a wall of said chamber and being mounted from said mounting plates such that said second ends extend from said mounting plates in correspondence above a row of cultivation containers placed on said cultivation shelves, said optical fibers transmitting sunlight from said sunlight introducing device to act as said lighting means for irradiation of the mushrooms, and said movement controller, which is arranged to move said assembly in a reciprocating manner to irradiate the sunlight introduced through said optical fibers onto the mushrooms intermittently. According to the present invention there is provided a method of cultivating mushrooms in prepared cultivation bottles, which bottles are held on a plurality of cultivation shelves disposed in an array, and in which method the mushrooms are irradiated with light by lighting means disposed above each of the shelves, which lighting means move in a reciprocating manner, characterised in that the cultivation is carried out in a cultivation chamber which is sealed in a heat insulated state, within which chamber the shelves are disposed in the array on a support, holding the prepared cultivation bottles in rows in spaced relationship, which bottles contain mushroom spawn which has been subjected to a scrambling operation, and in that the lighting means irradiate sunlight onto the mushrooms intermittently by employing a sunlight introducing device disposed outside said chamber which collects sunlight by way of a sunlight concentration device, the intermittent irradiation of the mushrooms being accomplished by an intermittently irradiating device, which includes a mounting plate assembly comprising a vertically positioned support plate and a plurality of mounting plates, said mounting plates being disposed generally horizontally and being connected to said support plate, one of said mounting plates being disposed above each of said cultivation shelves, the assembly moving in a reciprocating manner in the horizontal direction, and a plurality of optical fibers, each of said fibers having a first end and a second end, said optical fibres extending from said first ends located to receive light at said sunlight introducing device through a wall of said chamber and being mounted from said mounting plates such that said second ends extend from said mounting plates in correspondence above a row of cultivation containers placed on said cultivation shelves, said optical fibers transmitting sunlight from said sunlight introducing device for irradiation of the mushrooms. The mushroom cultivation method according to the present invention is characterized in that the sunlight of which the intensity of illumination, the wavelength and the irradiation time are adjusted is introduced into the cultivation chamber through light transmission means such as, for example, optical fibers in the cultivation term after completion of scrambling of spawn (operation of budding mushrooms) and mushrooms are irradiated with the introduced sunlight intermittently for a predetermined time. Further, the mushroom cultivation apparatus implementing the cultivation method is characterized by the provision of a chamber hermetically sealed in a heat insulated state, a sunlight introducing device for introducing the sunlight into the sealed chamber, and an intermittently irradiating device for irradiating the introduced sunlight at least intermittently. Such a cultivation method and apparatus can easily form the environment near the natural growing environment for mushrooms and can obtain mushrooms similar to natural mushrooms with respect to the form and the quality thereof. The sunlight described in the present invention includes light from an artificial sun as well as natural light and more particularly includes light having part or all of the wavelength range contained in the natural light. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a mushroom cultivation apparatus showing an example of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a characteristic diagram showing the intensity of illumination of the sunlight with respect to time according to the mushroom cultivation method of the present invention; and Fig. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing the intensity of illumination of the sunlight with respect to the cultivation time of mushrooms. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A mushroom cultivation apparatus is now described with reference to Fig. 1. The cultivation apparatus 1 includes a chamber 2 hermetically sealed in a heat insulated state. A reflective material 3 is stuck on the whole or partial surface 2i of an inner wall of the sealed chamber 2 if necessary. A plurality of cultivation shelves 4 are supported by a support 5 and a plurality of cultivation bottles 6 are put on the shelves 4. The cultivation shelves 4 are preferably formed of a netlike plate through which the sunlight can easily passes. On the other hand, an intermittently irradiating device 7 supports optical fibers 8 constituting an optical transmission portion. The device 7 includes a plurality of mounting plates 9 disposed above the cultivation bottles 6 to fix at the lower surface thereof inner ends of the plurality of optical fibers 8, a support plate 10 which supports the mounting plates 9, and a movement controller 11 which controls vertical movement of the support plate 10. Further, the movement controller 11 includes guide rails 13 fixedly mounted to a ceiling 12, rollers 14 which are led by the guide rails 13, supporting rods 15 which couple between the rollers 14 and the support plate 10, and a drive device not shown. Illumination directions from the inner ends of the optical fibers 8 serving as a floodlight are set to irradiate mushrooms F as uniformly as possible. With the construction of the movement controller 11, the inner ends of the optical fibers 8 can be moved to traverse above the cultivation bottles 6. Further, outer ends of the optical fibers 8 are connected to a sunlight concentrating device 17 disposed outside of the sealed chamber 2 to concentrate the sunlight effectively to constitute a sunlight introducing device 16. The concentrating device 17 includes an adjusting device 18 which processes the sunlight to control the intensity of illumination and the irradiating time of the sunlight and a filter 20 which selects a wavelength of the sunlight. The mushroom cultivation method using the above cultivation apparatus 1 is now described. Spawn of Hyspizygus marmoreus is inoculated into the cultivation bottles 6 filled with the mushroom culturing ground to culture spawn in the ordinary manner. The mushroom culturing ground is formed of sawdust mixed with rice bran. When the culture of spawn has been completed, the outer periphery of the surface is subjected to scrambling of spawn (operation of budding mushrooms). Thereafter, only visible rays having the wavelength of about 380 to 700 nm of the sunlight from the outside are introduced through the filter 20 about 21 days of the cultivation term to maintain the intensity of illumination to be preferably 200 Luxes or less. Further, the intermittently irradiating device 7 is operated, that is, the device is reciprocated along the guide rails 13 so that the inner ends of the optical fibers 8 pass above the cultivation bottles 6 successively to irradiate each of the cultivation bottles 6 intermittently as shown in Fig. 2, in which the axis of abscissa shows time t in minute. A irradiating cycle of the sunlight can be set so that a substantially irradiating time T1 is about one-minute and a non-irradiating time T2 is about three minute. The intensity of illumination L (Lux) of the sunlight shown in the axis of ordinate is different depending on the time of the cultivation term and can be set as shown in Fig. 3, in which Wf indicates a first week corresponding to the time of budding mushrooms. The time of budding mushrooms requires the intensity of illumination of about 10 Luxes. Further, Ws indicates a second week corresponding to the growing time. The intensity of illumination is gradually increased to about 200 Luxes. Thus, when the intensity of illumination of about 200 Luxes is maintained in a third week (the growing time) shown by Wt, good results are obtained. Comparison results between mushrooms of Hyspizygus marmoreus harvested by the method of the present invention and mushrooms harvested by a conventional artificial cultivation method are now described. Mushrooms harvested by the conventional artificial cultivation method possess the following characteristics: (1) A cap portion of mushrooms is small, thick and fine. The surface of the cap has black spot pattern. (2) A stalk portion of mushrooms in contact with the culture ground occupies 30 to 40 % of the whole body. (3) Freshness of mushrooms is maintained for 3 to 4 days in the case of mushrooms of which freshness is not maintained for a long time, and thereafter mushrooms rot by themselves. On the contrary, mushrooms harvested by the method of the present invention possess the following characteristics: (1) A cap portion of mushrooms is not different from that of natural mushrooms and has a periphery which is thin and hangs down. The cap portion is a so-called center projection type in which the center portion of the cap is projected high. (2) A stalk portion of mushrooms in contact with the culture ground is small and accordingly it is not necessary to dig the ground by a tool upon harvest. Mushrooms can be easily taken by hand. (3) Distribution of spawn is good and the harvest of mushrooms is 1.8 times as compared with the conventional harvest. Accordingly, an actual harvest is twice as compared with the conventional harvest when considering the small stalk portion in contact with the culture ground. (4) Freshness of mushrooms is maintained good and even if 5 days has elapsed, the quality thereof is not changed almost. While the temperature in the cultivation environment is maintained to 14°C in the conventional cultivation method, the temperature in the cultivation environment according to the method of the present invention may be a room temperature in the range of 5°C to 30°C and can use the outside temperature effectively. Accordingly, air cooling and heating are merely used supplementarily or can not be required. (5) Mushrooms have no smell of rice bran and have taste containing rice bran highly. Particularly, mushrooms have natural flavor and hence it can be expected that mushrooms are worked into paste or powder to utilize an annex for foodstuff or raw material for natural solid sauce.

Claims: Apparatus for cultivating mushrooms in prepared cultivation bottles (6), comprising a plurality of cultivation shelves (4) disposed in an array and holding the cultivation bottles (6), lighting means (7, 17, 8) disposed above each of the shelves (4), and a movement controller (11) for moving the lighting means in a reciprocating manner, characterised in that the apparatus comprises: a cultivation chamber (2) sealed in a heat insulated state, within which chamber the shelves (4) are disposed in the array on a support (5), holding the prepared cultivation bottles (6) in rows in spaced relationship, which bottles are for containing mushroom spawn which has been subjected to a scrambling operation, a sunlight introducing device disposed outside said chamber, said sunlight introducing device including a sunlight concentration device (17) for collecting sunlight, an intermittently irradiating device (7), said irradiating device (7) including a mounting plate assembly, said assembly including a vertically positioned support plate (10) and a plurality of mounting plates (9), said mounting plates (9) being disposed generally horizontally and being connected to said support plate (10), one of said mounting plates (9) being disposed above each of said cultivation shelves (4), said assembly being movable in a reciprocating manner in the horizontal direction, a plurality of optical fibers (8), each of said fibers having a first end and a second end, said optical fibres extending from said first ends located to receive light at said sunlight introducing device through a wall of said chamber (2) and being mounted from said mounting plates (9) such that said second ends extend from said mounting plates in correspondence above a row of cultivation containers (6) placed on said cultivation shelves (4), said optical fibers transmitting sunlight from said sunlight introducing device to act as said lighting means for irradiation of the mushrooms, and said movement controller (11), which is arranged to move said assembly in a reciprocating manner to irradiate the sunlight introduced through said optical fibers onto the mushrooms intermittently. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sunlight concentration device includes an adjusting unit (18) capable of controlling at least the intensity of illumination transmitted along said optical fibers. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sunlight concentration device includes a filter (20) for selecting wavelength of the sunlight transmitted along said optical fibers. A method of cultivating mushrooms in prepared cultivation bottles (6), which bottles are held on a plurality of cultivation shelves (4) disposed in an array, and in which method the mushrooms are irradiated with light by lighting means (7, 17, 8) disposed above each of the shelves (4), which lighting means move in a reciprocating manner, characterised in that the cultivation is carried out in a cultivation chamber (2) which is sealed in a heat insulated state, within which chamber the shelves (4) are disposed in the array on a support (5), holding the prepared cultivation bottles (6) in rows in spaced relationship, which bottles contain mushroom spawn which has been subjected to a scrambling operation, and in that the lighting means irradiate sunlight onto the mushrooms intermittently by employing a sunlight introducing device disposed outside said chamber which collects sunlight by way of a sunlight concentration device (17), the intermittent irradiation of the mushrooms being accomplished by an intermittently irradiating device (7), which includes a mounting plate assembly comprising a vertically positioned support plate (10) and a plurality of mounting plates (9), said mounting plates (9) being disposed generally horizontally and being connected to said support plate (10), one of said mounting plates (9) being disposed above each of said cultivation shelves (4), the assembly moving in a reciprocating manner in the horizontal direction, and a plurality of optical fibers (8), each of said fibers having a first end and a second end, said optical fibres extending from said first ends located to receive light at said sunlight introducing device through a wall of said chamber (2) and being mounted from said mounting plates (9) such that said second ends extend from said mounting plates in correspondence above a row of cultivation containers (6) placed on said cultivation shelves (4), said optical fibers transmitting sunlight from said sunlight introducing device for irradiation of the mushrooms. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the intensity of illumination transmitted along said optical fibers is controlled by an adjusting unit (18) included in the sunlight concentration device. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the wavelength of the sunlight transmitted along said optical fibers is selected by a filter (20) included in the sunlight concentration device.

Inventors: WATARI SHIGENOBU, WATARI, SHIGENOBU
Applicants: WATARI SHIGENOBU, WATARI, SHIGENOBU
Application year: 1988
Main classification: A01G1
IPC codes: A01G7, A01G9, A01G1