Lotus seeds with different maturity have different mechanical properties. At present, shelling machinery of lotus seeds is only suitable for those after ripening stage, while, the breakage rate increases greatly when milk and wax ripening stages of lotus seeds are shelled. In order to improve the applicability of shelling machinery and reduce the crushing rate of fresh lotus seeds in the process of shelling and peeling, the compression, crushing and shearing characteristics of lotus seeds with different maturities were studied. In this study, the lotus seeds from Honghu Lake in Hubei Province with variety of space lotus No. 36 were chosen as research object. Firstly, the shape dimensions and water content were measured. And also did long-axis and short-axis compression, whole lotus seed crush test, shear test under different speeds and different depths, triaxial compression test, and elastic modulus of lotus shell were conducted. According to these experiments, the long axis and short axis elastic modulus were analyzed and calculated. What’s more, the ultimate failure load, and the relationship between shear stress and depth, speed and maturity were obtained. The results show that the average longitudinal and transverse ratios of the lotus seeds with milk maturity, wax maturity and maturity are 1.35, 1.28, 1.19, respectively, and the water content is 79.84%, 70.28%, 57.72%, respectively. In addition, the long axis elastic moduli of lotus seeds are 1.09 MPa, 1.22 MPa, and 1.85 MPa, respectively, and the short axis elastic moduli are 1.33 MPa, 1.42 MPa, and 2.16 MPa, respectively. The ultimate damage loads of three maturity lotus seeds are 81.995N, 117.107N, and 167.640N, respectively. Under the same maturity and shear depth, shear force does not change with shear speed, while, under the same maturity and shear speed, shear force is linearly correlated with shear depth. The compression shelling force of lotus seed in the X, Y and Z directions increases with maturity. Under the same maturity, the compressive force"s number in the triaxial direction is X