New Replicable Kelp Nursery Design Drops on Ocean Farming Hub
GreenWave tests and implements new nursery designs and techniques in an effort to forge systems that provide reliable, affordable, and timely seed for the regenerative ocean farming community. We share out our findings to give farmers the tools and infrastructure they need to own and expand regional seed production, ensuring they can capture more of the kelp value chain. “One of our key design principles when we build new systems is to make it accessible to a very broad range of operators,” says Toby Sheppard Bloch, GreenWave’s Director of Infrastructure.
In 2021, GreenWave set out to improve our original nursery infrastructure in collaboration with Hortimare, a global leader in seed production, to better suit commercial scale, retooling scientific techniques with an eye towards efficiency and farmer accessibility. With a new modular design based out of a 20’ refrigerated shipping container, GreenWave’s replicable nursery model has the capacity to generate twice the amount of seed using less than half the labor and a third of the space of our original facility.
As a result of these advancements and the development of our seed bank, GreenWave’s farm production tripled, and our nursery achieved a 100% seed spool success rate in 2023. “Based on the results of the last two nursery seasons, we’re confident that the system design is ready for replication,” says Toby.
In order to get our findings out to the broader industry, GreenWave created a new Ocean Farming Hub course and Farmer Forum webinar which outlines the basics of updated kelp seed production infrastructure, techniques, and materials needed to build this improved nursery design. Released in December 2023, Seed Production Pathways to Scale dives into the details of water sanitation, proper lighting, cooling systems, and other key information to help farmers replicate the GreenWave model.
“Any farmer or nursery can easily implement this new nursery system," says Toby. “All of the materials needed are available off the shelf—none of this is custom. None of this requires a scientific background to implement and run successfully.”
In addition to sharing our process and learnings through the online Hub course, GreenWave hosted a delegation of seaweed industry stakeholders in January to get a closer look at our new nursery facility.
“The tour was a golden opportunity to learn more about the regenerative aquaculture work GreenWave is doing,” says Meggan Dwyer, Associate Director of the Aquaculture Research Institute in Maine. “We always like to work collaboratively, especially with folks like GreenWave who are really able to reach farmers.”
With the opportunity to tour the new nursery, Meggan and her colleagues were inspired to think creatively about how to apply GreenWave’s farmer-forward tools and techniques to their own research. “When I saw GreenWave’s nursery, I realized that we could also implement a shipping container model like that, and it would be so much more affordable than what we usually buy for our facilities,” says Meggan. “You don't need the fanciest equipment to get the job done.”
Farmer ownership of the seed supply is a core tenet of GreenWave’s vision for the future of the regenerative ocean farming industry. GreenWave looks forward to further collaboration with our network to advance farmer-owned kelp seed infrastructure.
