Print

[teonanocatl]

basicly i have been looking into algae and marine phytoplankton and i have figured out how to meet their basic needs but i havent been able to figure out how to do it more organicly, one dude that i bought a starter culture from says its impossible because of the form you need the food fir the algae to eat it in needs to be synthetic for some reason, it also makes me concerned about contams in the finished solution if they dont eat all the fertilizer also i can only find specific instructions for algae and not marine phytoplankton but i know one can grow phytoplankton aswell because many people have refered to it without clearly laying out the recipes and such

[BubbleCat]

I dont buy it, it can hardly be impossible to formulate organic fertilizer, the question the remains would be: At what cost. Since who knows: Maybe the result will be more cleaning of your culture, having to run a more "complete" system with zooplankton as well or who knows.

My take is based on this info about what Phytop. needs or wants:

Nitrogen
Phosphate
Potassium
Calcium
Magnesium
Sulfur
Iron
Copper
Zinc
Boron
Molybdenum
Manganese
Cobalt
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B3

And a few others to improve performance.

So, can we find a mix of organic material that contains all of the list in favourable relations ? I think yes.

1 Like FewTrueSeed likes this.

[FewTrueSeed]

Nothing is impossible. I would like to see this go to trial. Are the cultures on agar? I have a 50 gallon drum in the greenhouse I wash all my root bound plants in. Pond algae flourish in it. I would like to think that the algae offer extra nitrogen for my plants, as I also use it for watering. Are you cultivating for medicinal purposes?

[teonanocatl]

misc wild algae are great for feeding to plants...as far as making the fertilizer im pretty sure the trick is that its supposed to be fully soluble and if you use organic ferts they are presumably bound to some sort of organic material.....im thinking if we got really elaborate we could make a compost tea with guano, yeast, worm castings, eggshells and urine probly humic acid and seaweeds and stuff too....at which point there is probably still more of a concern of residual contaminates than with the "pure chems"...at the very least its infinitly more complicated and experimental then adding a few ml of know substance into some clean water...thus i find it difficult to fully proceed, need more reference points/info sources/ collaborators.... once i get my new cultures up and running i can send out live samples that can be propagated, they go out free to anyone contributing to the experiment/project

[FewTrueSeed]

 Would love to play around. What If you broke down said ingredients with fungi, then sterilize and inoculate with the algae. You have a sterile space?

[teonanocatl]

fermented urine, rusty nails, and rotting straw/hay is the best organic recipe for this i have found...sorry a cannot recommend amounts a...also periodic addition of baking soda and salt...i have been considering replacing the baking soda with hort. lime but last time i replaced the base my culture got screwy also the baking soda has a good amount of soluble carbon which the algae uses alot of...the cultures are growing in one gallon containers with an air bubble hose and a magnetic stir plate made from computer fan...

[Mr. seeds]

I've little experience in growing algae and some of this is a bit more complex than i think i can handle but if anyone wants to help hold my hand through the process by explaining and expounding upon things i'd be willing to help out! I have some green algae growing in a plastic bowl of water but beyond that i know little of organic algae. Would be a cool experiment though! I might have some issues tracking down the source material for the fertilizer. How would one source these? Also i'ma respond to some specific comments and ask some questions. thanks guys! peace and algae (normally i would say "peace and love" but what's the difference?! lol )

fermented urine, rusty nails, and rotting straw/hay is the best organic recipe for this i have found...sorry a cannot recommend amounts a...also periodic addition of baking soda and salt...i have been considering replacing the baking soda with hort. lime but last time i replaced the base my culture got screwy also the baking soda has a good amount of soluble carbon which the algae uses alot of...the cultures are growing in one gallon containers with an air bubble hose and a magnetic stir plate made from computer fan...

baking soda and salt??! Rusty Nails?... interesting. i've literally never heard of those being used in anything. Do you understand the "Why's" and "how's" of the use of these?

What If you broke down said ingredients with fungi, then sterilize and inoculate with the algae.

would any fungi work?

[LIBERTYNY]

 I have heard of some people re-plumbing their homes/business plumbing's grey water systems to feed such operations, Depending on what you put down what drain it could be food safe.

 "Waste Stabilization ponds" are the same thing but on a much larger scale, some basic info on waste stabilization ponds --- http://www.watersanitationhygiene.org/References/Sewage.php?link=EH_KEY_REFERENCES/SANITATION/Waste%20Stabilization%20Ponds/Waste%20Stabilization%20Ponds%20Design%20Manual%20(UNEP).pdf

1 Like Mr. seeds likes this.