Seeding Bull Kelp - gametophytes stick to seedstring using an air stone in tank seeding.

[michelle_stephens]

From Tesia at Native Conservancy regarding seeding with bull kelp. They were able to get gametophytes to stick to seedstring using an air stone in tank seeding.

For nereocystis, I was shocked to see gametophytes in one of our nereo spore releases. Nothing was moving, but there were thousands of early stage gametophytes. See the attached article that shows some nereo blades do not release their spores until the gametophyte stage and still successfully settling post-release. In the nursery, I did a tank seeding with an air stone and had really great results with the gametophytes settling on spools (it was our best nereo seeding to date). It just took more care to evenly spread the spore solution (or gametophyte solution) around each spool.

Ulaski and Konar 2021 - Nereocystis