FUNGAL CULTIVATION
A different way
to grow fungi.
Mycoponics feeds fungi through a porous ceramic surface. Nutrients move from the inside out, while mycelium grows on the outside.
THE PLATFORM
How Mycoponics works
The ceramic structure gives the fungus a surface to grow on and a route for its nutrient supply. Mycelium develops on the outside, exposed to air and accessible to researchers.
Liquid feed. Nutrient medium enters the hollow structure. Activated carbon inside helps retain water and nutrients.
Porous wall. The ceramic delivers nutrients to the growing surface and filters microorganisms in the feed.
Accessible growth. Mycelium and its exudates can be observed and collected at the surface.
The published system uses one-way nutrient delivery rather than a recirculating loop.
Photographs from the Mycogravity pitch deck.
LABORATORY RESULTS
What the experiments show
7+ months
Sustained cultivation
Mycelial cultures remained viable for more than seven months without observed contamination in controlled growth chambers.
>99.7%
Microbial filtration
The tested ceramic interface filtered out more than 99.7% of microorganisms in flow-cytometry measurements.
2 weeks
Blue oyster fruiting
Blue oyster mushrooms formed within two weeks of inoculation using the study’s optimized nutrient formulation.
Reported in Porterfield et al., Biotechnology Journal (2026). These are laboratory results. Filtration was measured at the ceramic interface; early-stage cultures can still be contaminated. Product yield and performance at larger scales need to be established separately.
APPLICATIONS
More than one way to use mycelium
Mushrooms and biomass
Study how nutrient delivery and growing conditions affect fungal biomass and mushroom formation.
Materials grown to shape
Grow mycelium around a designed form. The Mycoponics paper demonstrates three-dimensional reishi-mycelium prototypes.
Living fungal sensors
Measure how mycelium responds to its environment. MIND studies this through electrical signals from living fungal networks.
RESEARCH
Read the papers
PEER-REVIEWED PAPER · 2026
Mycoponics
Controlled Bioproduction Utilizing Biophysical, Solid-State, Liquid Nutrient Delivery
D. M. Porterfield et al.
Biotechnology Journal, 21(2), e70184.
The cultivation system, its methods and the experiments behind the results above.
RESEARCH PREPRINT · 2026
MIND
Mycoponically Integrated Network Device for Multimodal Sensing with Living Mycelial Networks
Z. O. Zeng, D. M. Porterfield and U. Kaur.
arXiv:2604.22947, version 3.
A mycoponics-based sensing system that records electrical responses in living mycelium. This work is available as a preprint.