Where to find seed for agarophytes? At a small scale? (Victoria, BC)
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I am an environmental educator and I'd like to make a miniature seaweed farm for educational purposes. I'm particularly interested in growing agarophytes, as I think it would be fun to experiment with making DIY agar for culturing microbes.
I'm having trouble finding sources of seed for this purpose and would be grateful for pointers! Also generally curious about sources for small quantities of seaweed seeds of other varieties.
@seth_42 Hi Seth - where are you located? If you're on the coast there may be more options vs being land locked.
@jwhis oops I meant to include my location! I'm in Victoria, BC, Canada, so very much coastal!
Gotcha! Maybe @kendall_barbery or @grace_collery have an idea?
@seth_42 you might want to check out West Coast Kelp.
@jwhis oops I meant to include my location! I'm in Victoria, BC, Canada, so very much coastal!
Gotcha! Maybe @kendall_barbery or @grace_collery have an idea?
@seth_42 you might want to check out West Coast Kelp.
@seth_42 Are you familiar with the North Island College Seaweed Innovation Hub? @logan_zeinert Do you have any insights into where Seth might find some culture material for red seaweed? Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, UBC, UVic, SFU and other university labs may have culture collections that could be useful. I'm not sure if the material would be available to private individuals. Lots of red seaweeds are commonly propagated vegetatively, by fragmenting the algae and then letting it regrow, so you may want to look for tissue rather than seed, per se.
It could also be worth reaching out to Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds, though I don't know if they produce agarophytes or just kelps.
Hope this helps!
@kendall_barbery Hi all!
Seth, I am just starting to get some red seaweed cultures started and into our biobank here at NIC, however Amy at Canadian Kelp Resources may have some, the Hakai Institute and Dr. Patrick Martone at UBC may also have some.
I agree with Kendall, It may be easier to fragment some of the reds you find locally and attempt to culture them this way. Many of the reds have quite a complex life cycle so it may be easier to avoid that and use a fragmentation style approach to keep them.
You would most likely be looking for Gracilaria - Its quite common, and I believe there is an old DFO report about pulling agar out of it that might be useful for you!
@kendall_barbery Hi all!
Seth, I am just starting to get some red seaweed cultures started and into our biobank here at NIC, however Amy at Canadian Kelp Resources may have some, the Hakai Institute and Dr. Patrick Martone at UBC may also have some.
I agree with Kendall, It may be easier to fragment some of the reds you find locally and attempt to culture them this way. Many of the reds have quite a complex life cycle so it may be easier to avoid that and use a fragmentation style approach to keep them.
You would most likely be looking for Gracilaria - Its quite common, and I believe there is an old DFO report about pulling agar out of it that might be useful for you!