Outplanting Late vs Hatchery Growout

[jill_pegnataro]

Question: If I have to decide between outplanting with smaller outplant size (it's getting to January!) and growing out in the hatchery - what should I choose? 

Answer: It's a better option to keep the seed in the hatchery to let it grow out to normal outplant size (1 - 2 mm), rather than planting early. Planting earlier sometimes works but sometimes doesn't. We know planting sporophytes works and they are getting tons of nutrients in the hatchery, so why take them from those nutrients early?

Some other things to keep in mind:

• Drop the temp of hatchery tanks to match the farm temps
• Nutrients still there at this time (highest) Jan - Feb - even March
• Spools are getting so much nutrients in the hatchery anyway -- keep them in the tanks to give them the boost that we might be "missing" in the field
• Once outplanting was done on January 27th in New England and still saw basically normal success on the farm (6 - 7ft blades)