An Analysis of Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) Productivity in Northern Latitudinal Aquaponic Growing Conditions

Aquaponics, the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture into one growing system, is a controlled environment production system that potentially has increased environmental and consumer benefits over traditional production methods. Typical horticulture aquaponic production focuses on leafy greens and herbs with no known studies on the production potential of strawberries (Fragaria xananassa Duchesne) or any other perennial fruit crop. This study compares day-neutral strawberry yield of 'Albion', 'Evie 2' and 'Portola' in aquaponic productions with different variables of strawberry yield in greenhouse production using soilless medium. There was no addition of supplemental nutrients or pollinators to the systems in order to evaluate the differences between treatments. We found a significant difference among cultivars in number of fruit, fresh fruit weight, and dry fruit weight with 'Evie 2' having the highest yield in all. There was no significant difference in the number of fruit produced by strawberries grown in soilless medium and those grown aquaponically. We did, however, find that aquaponic strawberries had a significantly higher fresh fruit weight while strawberries grown in soilless medium had a significantly higher dry fruit weight. This indicates that strawberries grown in soilless medium had a higher mass to water ratio, although aquaponic-grown strawberries sometimes had higher fresh weight yield.