Back to: Monitoring Growth

A common question you might ask yourself during your first few hatchery seasons is: Is this normal? It takes time and experience to develop the confidence that everything is growing as it should and on schedule. If you observe the kelp developmental stages outlined in the next sections, you should be on track for a successful five to eight-week hatchery season. 

The very first time you see your kelp under the microscope is during seeding, when the sorus tissue has released motile spores. The spores will only remain motile for a couple of hours before settling on the seed string, where they’ll grow out the rest of their lives. 

You can and should monitor the growth of the kelp on your spools over the next four weeks, when the blades are still too small to see with the naked eye. The simplest way to monitor growth is to look at your spools under a stereo microscope. You could also take very small snips of the two-inch piece of seed string you tied halfway down each spool when they were wound. Try to take a look at each spool at least one to two times during the microscopic growth stages. This can give you an idea of your hatchery’s timeline and success rate early on. You can refer to this Spool Growth Tracking Chart to get insights on the development of the spools.