Spore release
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Just wanted to share something we've observed repeatedly over the past couple years in our kelp hatchery in Long Island, NY when doing spore releases on wild-collected sorus tissue. The standard protocol recommends placing the cleaned, processed sorus tissue in a refrigerator overnight to slightly desiccate before initiating the spore release. We have found that holding the cleaned sorus tissue in the refrigerator for longer periods of up to 3-4 days results in a much greater release of spores (3 to 4 times more spores released after a 3-day refrigeration period compared to overnight refrigeration). I'm not sure how appliable this might be to other regions, and probably doesn't matter if you are already getting good spore releases with overnight refrigeration. But if you are getting weak spore releases, try desiccating the sorus for longer periods in the refrigerator and see what happens. I think it's also nice to know that you have a several-day window to do a successful spore release after sorus collection, especially when life gets busy.
@michael_doall Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
@michael_doall
Thanks for sharing that. I had leftover sorus that I used after several days with better success. I thought it was a fluke!
Charlene
@michael_doall Awesome! A great finding in an industry that is constantly at the whim of Murphy's Law.
@michael_doall Thanks so much for sharing--I've seen a couple other several day delayed releases that were super productive.
@michael_doall The desiccation of the sorus isn't always a requirement for good spore release. The ripeness of the sorus during the drying after the cleaning will indicate if its ready to release. That means you could do a spore release one hour after cleaning.
You can also desiccate the sorus again and try the next day. This process can be repeated up to 3 times before the tissue starts to decompose. The multiple spore release method can significantly increase the amount of spores released by a single piece of sorus.
Hope this helps!