Spirulina

[guardian]

Just wondering if any farang cultivating spirulina here in Thailand. Is it worth the effort and what are the pros and cons? Thank you.

[guardian]

Nobody ?

[brahmburgers]

all I know about spirulina is it grows profusely (and naturally) in Klamath lake SE Oregon, USA. It's blooms once a year, so it's seasonally affected. Klamath is quite clean, fed by mountain streams, and colder than any lake you'll find in Thailand.

In contrast, all lakes in Thailand are various shades of either silty or polluted. I had a Thai girlfriend who saw a photo of a blue-green creek and marvelled at it's hue, saying, "we only have brown rivers in Thailand."

Maybe there's a more tropical tolerant strain that could be grown in Thailand, but you'd probably have to filter any water that's used. Maybe do it in cement tubs, with screening to keep out bugs, etc. Because of the year-round heat, there would be other things that would want to grow in there.

By the way, there was a shirtless rastafarian I met at Klamath, who simply walked in the water (no, not on the water) with a small framed aluminum window screen - and leisurely drew it thru and got a decent amount of the stuff and dried it in the sun on plywood. Maybe that's what I'll be doing next year, if the visa rules get too weird for me to stay here in brown-water Thailand.

[LaoPo]

Just wondering if any farang cultivating spirulina here in Thailand. Is it worth the effort and what are the pros and cons? Thank you.

There's a lot of info here: did you try and read that ?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=s...rowing+thailand

LaoPo

Edited January 31, 2007 by LaoPo

[guardian]

Thanks for the replies.

LP, I did search before and also emailed to a few of the sites which gave information on cultivating them. But to date, none of them replied. And the ones that did reply, replied in the negative. So, I was wondering if anyone was cultivating them here in man-made ponds.

[frikkiedeboer]

Thanks for the replies.

LP, I did search before and also emailed to a few of the sites which gave information on cultivating them. But to date, none of them replied. And the ones that did reply, replied in the negative. So, I was wondering if anyone was cultivating them here in man-made ponds.

i found quite a few vietnamese and chinese suppliers of dried spirulina powder while searching for suppliers of artemia and earthworm powder. they make some interesting claims as to its beneficial affects as an additive to animal and fish feeds. this could be the low end of the market-my daughter is a beauty therapist and is continually pushing products containing the stuff and she really believes in its benefits, so there is another marketing opportunity there, and probably at a higher price than as sold as an animal feed additive. it should be easy to produce and thailand would definitely be suited to this type of farming but you would probably battle to find a market in thailand for it and you would have to undertake a proper study before committing yourself. all you need is water,nutrients and plenty of sunxhine to produce the stuff-thailand has an abundance of all of these. did not find any details on yields,profitability or farming methods either,but if they are exporting profitably worldwide from vietnam,it may well be worth it to persevere.

good luck

frikkie

Edited April 26, 2007 by frikkiedeboer

[fxm88]

Here's the Spirulina Farm Visit from the TV show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern:

[ozzydom]

http://www.spirulinasource.com/earthfoodch6a.html#tour

Looks ok if you have a spare few billion baht laying about gathering dust.