FR2686768A1 - Method of cultivating and cutting cultivated mushrooms in containers and insert intended for the said containers - Google Patents

Abstract

Method of cultivating and cutting cultivated mushrooms in containers. According to the invention, after filling the containers with culture substrate at a filling site, the said method comprises the steps consisting in: a) constructing, on the filling site, stacks of containers, called transport stacks, by simple superposition of the said containers, and transporting the said transport stacks to a cultivation site, b) constructing, on the cultivation site, stacks of at least two superimposed containers, called culture stacks, by superposing the containers, while resting an upper container on the container which is immediately below it using inserts, c) after post-incubation, transporting the culture stacks from the culture site to a cutting site, d) unstacking, on the cutting site, the so-called culture stacks by arranging the said containers side by side on a conveyor of an automatic cutting machine, so that two vertical walls of one container, called raised walls, having a height at most equal to the height of the said culture substrate, are respectively adjacent to one raised wall of the neighbouring containers, e) cutting and removing the stipes from the mushrooms in the containers, irrigating and treating the culture substrate, f) reconstructing the culture stack at the output of the conveyor and either returning the said culture stacks to the culture site for recultivation and repeating steps c) to e), or unstacking the culture stacks thus reconstructed, removing the inserts from the upper containers, constructing new transport stacks and transporting the said transport stacks to an emptying site for emptying the culture substrate out of the containers. Application to the cultivated mushroom industry.

Description

 The present invention relates to a method of cultivating and cutting layer mushrooms in containers each comprising, on the one hand, a tray on which a culture substrate for said mushrooms is placed inside vertical walls surrounding said tray, and, on the other hand, a plurality of vertical feet on which said container rests.

 The invention finds a particularly advantageous application in the field of cultivation and cutting of mushrooms or button mushrooms.

Industrial exploitation of cultivated mushrooms
France is currently encountering a certain number of difficulties, in particular when these mushrooms are picked and cut on the same cultivation site. In this case, in fact, the work can only be done manually, which limits the speed of execution and increases the cost price, it being understood that picking and cutting mechanized on site is impossible given the small size of the cultivation sites, which are often cellars in underground galleries, and the fact that, in the cultivation position, the mushroom containers are generally arranged in stacks of two or more containers, which makes it impossible to operate an automatic cutting machine.

 The object of the present invention is therefore to propose a method for cultivating and cutting layer mushrooms in accordance with the preamble which would make it possible to carry out automatic picking and cutting of said mushrooms in a cutting site external to the cultivation site proper. .

According to the present invention, such a method is remarkable in that, after filling the containers with culture substrate on a filling site, said method comprises the steps consisting in:
a) constitute, on the filling site, stacks of containers, called transport stacks, by simple superimposition of said containers, and transport said transport stacks on a culture site,
b) constitute, on the culture site, stacks of at least two superimposed containers, called culture stacks, each culture stack comprising a lower container and at least one upper container, this step being carried out by equipping the feet of said container upper of positive engagement dividers and superimposing the containers by resting the upper container on the container which is immediately below it by means of said dividers,
c) after post-incubation, transport the ready-to-harvest culture stacks from the culture site to a cutting site,
d) unstacking, on the cutting site, the containers of said culture stacks ready for picking by placing said containers side by side on a conveyor of an automatic cutting machine, so that two vertical walls of a container, opposite l to one another, said lowered walls, having a height at most equal to the height of said culture substrate in said container, are respectively adjacent to a lowered wall of neighboring containers,
e) cut, stump the mushrooms from the containers, water and treat the growing medium,
f) reconstitute the culture stacks at the outlet of the conveyor and either return said culture stacks to the culture site for re-cultivation and repeat steps c) to e), or depilate the culture stacks thus reconstituted, remove the spacers of the upper containers, constitute new transport stacks and transport said transport stacks to an emptying site to empty the containers of their culture substrate.

 Thus, the method according to the invention allows automatic picking and cutting of the mushrooms in the containers themselves by transporting said containers from the culture site to the cutting site.

 It will also be noted that the mechanization of the cutting is facilitated by the use of containers having lowered opposite walls, which makes it possible, when the lowered walls of a plurality of containers arranged on the cutting line are adjacent, to avoid d 'having to raise the cutting machine when passing the walls and leave uncut the mushrooms along said walls.

 The use of removable dividers is generally justified by the fact that, on the one hand, on the culture site, the distance between two consecutive containers of the same culture stack must be sufficient to ensure satisfactory ventilation of the mushroom layers and to allow inspection during the cycle with watering and application of a treatment product, and that, on the other hand, during transport from the filling site to the cultivation site and the cutting site to the emptying site, this distance must be reduced so that the greatest number of containers can be transported on the same vehicle.

The use of dividers with positive engagement in the feet of the containers has the advantage, compared to known spacers with force fitting, of preventing, during the unstacking on the cutting site, the fall of the dividers on the mushrooms ready to pick from another container and, when re-stacking after cutting, to unbalance the reconstituted culture stacks. In addition, this type of interlayer can be easily disassembled when constituting the transport batteries intended to be conveyed to the emptying site.

 The description which follows with reference to the appended drawings, given by way of nonlimiting examples, will make it clear what the invention consists of and how it can be implemented.

 Figures la, lb and lc are respectively front, top and side views of a container used in the method of growing and cutting mushrooms according to the invention.

 Figure 2 is a side view of containers arranged in a transport stack.

 Figure 3 is a side view of two containers arranged in a culture stack.

 FIGS. 4a and 4b are respectively front and top views of an interlayer used in the culture stack of FIG. 3.

 Figures 4c and 4d are respectively front and top views of a detail of the interlayer shown in Figure 4a.

 Figure 5a is a front view of a container in the filling site.

 Figure 5b is a front view of containers similar to the container of Figure 5a, loaded into a transport stack on a transport vehicle to the culture site.

 FIG. 5c is a front view showing, on the culture site, the re-stacking of the containers from the transport stack to the culture stack.

 FIG. 5d is a front view of a culture stack loaded on a transport vehicle at the cutting site, after the mushrooms have matured.

 FIG. 5e is a front view of an automatic cutting machine installed on the cutting site.

 FIG. 5f is a front view of a culture stack reconstituted at the outlet of the automatic cutting machine of FIG. 5e.

 Figure 5g is a front view of a culture stack loaded on a transport vehicle to the culture site.

 Figure 5h is a front view of a transport stack, formed by unstacking and re-stacking the culture stack of Figure 5f, loaded on a transport vehicle to the container emptying site.

 Figures la, lb and lc show a front view, from above and from the side a container 10 for the cultivation, for example, of cultivated mushrooms or button mushrooms. The container comprises a tray I t on which a culture substrate for said mushrooms is placed inside vertical walls 12, 13, 14, 15 surrounding said tray. It will be noted in FIG. 1c that the opposite lateral walls 13, 15, forming the short sides of the container 10, called lowered walls, have a height at most equal to the height of said substrate in the container. On the other hand, the container 10 rests on four hollow vertical feet 16, provided in their upper part with a centering pin 17.

 FIG. 2 represents, in a view similar to that of FIG. 1c, a stack for transporting a plurality of containers in which said containers are superimposed directly by placing the pins 17 of a container respectively inside the feet 16 of the next higher container. In this configuration, the stack has the greatest compactness so that the maximum number of containers can be transported at once when said transport stack is loaded on a transport vehicle to be brought to a particular site.

 FIG. 3 shows, also in a view similar to that of FIG. 1c, a culture stack of a plurality of containers, here two, in which said containers are superimposed by placing the pins 17 of a container respectively interior of positive engagement tabs 20 with which the feet 16 of the container immediately above are fitted.

 A non-limiting example of such positive engagement spacers is given in Figures 4a and 4b. As can be seen in the aforementioned figures, the interlayer 20 is essentially constituted by a hollow tube of circular section provided in its upper part 22 with a stud 21 projecting from the outside of said tube.

 Figures 4c and 4d are detail views of said upper part 22 of the interlayer 20 when the latter cooperates with a container leg 16 having the shape of a tube with a square inner section. In order to be able to engage the interlayer 20 inside the leg 16 in a fairly tight manner, the outside diameter of the circular section of the interlayer tube 20 is substantially equal to the width of said square interior section of the leg 16.

 The pin 21 is intended to cooperate, by rotation of the spacer tube 20 in the tube of the foot 16, with a slot 18 formed transversely in the base of the container over a half-length of said square section. For this purpose, the length of the pin 21 is at most equal to the difference between the half-diagonal of the square inner section of the foot 16 and the outside radius of the insert tube 20. Thus, to install the insert, we bring the tube 20 in position I inside the leg 16, the pin 21 being opposite the light 18, then the interlayer is locked by a rotation of an eighth of a turn to position I1.

 A method of cultivation and cutting of layer mushrooms using containers in accordance with those shown in Figures la to 4d will now be described with reference to Figures 5a to 5h.

 In a prior step shown in FIG. 5a, the containers are, in the usual manner, filled with a culture substrate on a filling site SR. This substrate consists of pasteurized compost seeded with mycelium and covered with goletting earth after incubation of mycelium.

 As illustrated in FIGS. 5b and 5c, the containers thus ready for culture are superimposed in transport piles of the type shown in FIG. 2, then loaded onto a transport vehicle and transported to a SC culture site where the containers of the transport piles are then constituted in culture piles like that represented in FIG. 3, any upper container resting on the container which is immediately below it by means of dividers 20 with positive engagement such as that shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b. In the example of FIG. 5c, the culture stacks comprise two containers, without this having any limiting character.

 When a first flock of mushrooms has reached maturity and as indicated in FIG. 5d, the culture stacks ready to be picked are loaded onto a transport vehicle which brings them from the SC culture site to a SCP cutting site shown diagrammatically on Figure 5e.

 At the entrance to an automatic cutting machine 100, the containers are unstacked and placed side by side on a conveyor 110 so that two lowered walls 13, 15 of a container 10 are adjacent respectively to a lowered wall 15, 13 neighboring containers.

 At this stage of the process, it is essential that the spacers cannot fall from the upper containers onto the mushrooms of the lower containers. This is achieved by means of the positive engagement spacers described above with reference to Figures 4a and 4b.

 The mushrooms are cut by a cutting tool 111, then stumped by a stump machine 112, the containers then being subjected to a chemical treatment using a watering device 113.

 At the outlet of the conveyor 110, the culture stacks of two containers are reconstituted automatically, as shown in FIG. 5f.

At this stage, two possibilities are open
either the substrate is capable of providing a new flight of mushrooms, and in this case the culture stacks are brought back to the culture site SC for re-culture,
- Or else the substrate is exhausted, and the previously reconstituted culture stacks are then unstacked in order to constitute new transport stacks. During this operation, the spacers are removed from the upper containers of the culture stacks in a quick and easy maneuver resulting from the very design of the spacers which offer both positive engagement and great ease of installation and removal. The transport batteries are then loaded on a transport vehicle to an emptying site SV to empty the containers of their spent substrate, in accordance with FIG. 5h.

Claims (2)

 1. Method for cultivating and cutting layer mushrooms in containers (10) each comprising, on the one hand, a tray (11) on which a culture substrate for said mushrooms is placed inside vertical walls ( 12, 13, 14, 15) surrounding said plate (11), and, on the other hand, a plurality of vertical feet (16) on which said container rests, characterized in that, after filling the containers with growing medium on a filling site (sir), said method includes the steps of  a) constitute, on the filling site (sir), stacks of containers, called transport stacks, by simple superimposition of said containers, and transport said transport stacks on a culture site (SC),  b) constitute, on the culture site (SC), stacks of at least two superimposed containers, called culture stacks, each culture stack comprising a lower container and at least one upper container, this step being carried out by equipping the feet of said upper container of dividers (20) with positive engagement and by superimposing the containers by resting the upper container on the container which is immediately below it by means of said dividers (20),  c) after post-incubation, transport the ready-to-harvest culture stacks from the culture site (SC) to a cutting site (SCP),  d) unstacking, on the cutting site (SCP), the containers of said culture stacks ready for picking by placing said containers side by side on a conveyor (110) of an automatic cutting machine (100), so that two vertical walls (13, 15) of a container, opposite one another, said lowered walls, having a height at most equal to the height of said culture substrate in said container, are respectively adjacent to a wall (15 , 13) lowered from neighboring containers,  e) cut, stump the mushrooms from the containers, water and treat the growing medium,  f) reconstitute the culture stacks at the outlet of the conveyor and either return said culture stacks to the culture site (SC) for re-cultivation and repeat steps c) to e), or, unstack the culture stacks thus reconstituted , remove the spacers (20) from the upper containers, constitute new transport stacks and transport said transport stacks to an emptying site (SV) to empty the containers of their culture substrate.  2. interlayer with positive engagement for the implementation of the method according to claim 1, characterized in that said container leg (16) being a tube of square inner section, said interlayer (20) consists of a tube of circular section of outer diameter substantially equal to the width of said square inner section, and by a stud (21) projecting from the outside of said spacer tube (20), the length of said stud being at most equal to the difference between the half - diagonal of the square inner section of the foot (16) and the outside radius of said spacer tube (20), and said pin (21) being intended to cooperate, by rotation of the spacer tube (20) in the tube of the container leg (16) with a lumen (18) formed transversely in the container leg over a half length of said square inner section.