For more detail on how to switch out the dummy lines on your 5-line arrays, review the Installing a 5-Line Array lesson in the Gear Prep course.
Lesson 1
Preparing to Outplant
Back to: Outplanting
Install Your Growlines
In the days before you outplant, you’ll want to swap out the dummy lines on your arrays for your actual growlines. While we recommend you deploy your anchors and the other components of your array well in advance of when your seed is ready, reserving the actual growlines for the days before seeding helps decrease the chance of biofouling. Sometimes, if a growline is left in the water too long before it’s outplanted with kelp seed, other microscopic creatures can settle on the lines and outcompete the kelp during the first weeks of its growth. To decrease the chances of this happening, we recommend stringing the growline between your anchoring system less than a week before you intend to outplant. This also gives you the opportunity to check that your anchors are properly set and adjust the tension of your array if your growlines have stretched or moved in the water.
In this video, Jill explains how to swap out a dummy line for your growline.
Note that this video shows a growline pre-spliced with a c-link connection. Another common way to configure a single-line array is to tie a bowline knot to your anchor line on one side of the array and use a tensioning knot, such as a trucker’s hitch, on the other side of your array to pull the slack out of the line. Either system will work. The important thing is that your growline is fully taut and the array stays under tension.
