AlgaeLab.org

Learn all about how to feed light to your Spirulina!

Part one of a three-part series.

Light, Part 1: Feeding Your Cultures Photons Spirulina are photosynthetic, so light is their food. This may sound obvious, but to understand them one must keep in mind that they have an intimate relationship with light that is not obvious to humans. In my 20+ years growing algae, the issue of light—how to deliver it, how much, and what wavel...

I have been testing out the OpenFlexure microscope I built, and the results are more than satisfactory…that’s a live image up in the screen there.

This build was done using resources from the free, open-source OpenFlexure project. The microscope they have designed has several properties that make it particularly useful for Spirulina production:

1. It is an inverted scope, which means you can just put a drop of your Spirulina culture on a slide and have a quick look at it, without having to bother with cover slides.
2. It has a built-in XY stage, so you can systematically scan your samples. This motion can be manual or automated.
3. Photography is built in, and the software can even stitch together images to make one comprehensive picture. This gives you a lot of options for documenting the state of your culture.
4. The microscope can autofocus
5. It is remarkably inexpensive, especially considering all the things it can do! The main expense, assuming you already have a computer, is the objective lens, which microscope nerds will know is what you want to invest in anyway, as it determines the clarity of your image.

For more information, check out https://openflexure.org

It’s been a fun project, not too difficult (the OpenFlexure documentation is pretty good, and there’s an active community who will help you out with your builds), and very rewarding.

Would you all be interested in a workshop where we build these together? Message me at [email protected], or post here!

P.S. I’ll be offering a new workshop series on Spirulina farming soon. The first half-day workshop will be on 6/20, with a couple online meet-and-greets beforehand. Stay tuned!

Some of you know how twenty years ago, I started working with a microscopic organism that most people had never heard of. In service of this organism, and what it can do for people, I have since traveled the world, worked for NASA, started and consulted for many businesses. Today I’m holding the book that finally puts all of that experience on paper. 🌿

My new book — Commercial Spirulina Production: From Flask to Farm — is officially out.

Maybe algae farming doesn’t sound like your bag, but it’s worth considering: Spirulina produces more protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants per acre than anything else we know how to grow, using a fraction of the water and other precious resources. It could be an important part of rethinking where food comes from.

This book is for anyone who wants to make an impact with Spirulina—whether that’s a small family operation, a community food project, or a full-scale commercial farm. This is my attempt to put everything I’ve learned into one place.

284 pages. 84 illustrations. A real labor of love for the little green guys.

If you’re curious, click the link. And if you know anyone who’s into sustainable food, superfoods, or just doing something genuinely different with agriculture — I’d love it if you passed it along. 💚

Commercial Spirulina Production: From Flask to Farm Scale up with confidence! This book follows up my book Grow Your Own Spirulina Superfood with a comprehensive, detailed guidebook to everything you need to know to go from a test tube to a thriving business. ((())) Commercial Spirulina Production: From Flask to Farm The result of 20 years of algae w...

🌿 BIG NEWS — My new book is here! 🌿

After 20 years of algae work with NASA and farms around the world, I've written the book I always wished I'd had when I started.

📗 Commercial Spirulina Production: From Flask to Farm

If you've read Grow Your Own Spirulina Superfood and wondered "how do I turn this into a real business?" — this is your answer.

This 284-page guide (with 84 illustrations!) walks you through every stage of building a profitable, sustainable Spirulina farm:

✅ Farm design & setup
✅ High-output cultivation
✅ Harvest & processing
✅ Getting your product sold
✅ Troubleshooting real-world problems

Spiruina requires a fraction of the land and water of traditional crops — and delivers serious value as one of the most protein-rich, nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Whether you're trying to feed people, save the world, or just make money, the tools to scale up with confidence are now in your hands.

https://algaelab.org/products/commercial-spirulina-production-from-flask-to-farm

Please check it out. 💚