Cultivation of marine red alga <i style="">Gracilaria edulis</i> (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) from spores

Abstract

<smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"><smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"> <i style="">Gracilaria edulis</i>, a major Indian agarophyte, has been successfully cultivated in an experimental scale from spores at sea off Narakkal, Kochi. Artificial objects like floating raft, nylon ropes and net pieces were provided in the open sea for collection of spores of <i style="">Gracilaria edulis</i>. They were allowed to grow to mature size of 30 cm. After 76 days of culture period, fully grown healthy plants of <i style="">Gracilaria edulis</i> were harvested from the nylon rope by hand pruning. Further growth was much faster. A total yield of 7.220 kg plants was obtained during 122 days of the culture period. The work has resulted in the successful cultivation of the species from the east coast to a coastal area of the west coast, Narakkal, and also in the identification of a fertile culture ground (open sea off Narakkal, Kochi) along the Kerala coast during favourable period of growth. </smarttagtype></smarttagtype>