![]() Nutrient levels are highly dependent on the fish activity, fish number, and fish species. Such systems make multiple uses of resources such as water and nutrients, and share infrastructure, management, and labor costs. By providing greenhouse growing methods for high value crops, NY growers will be able to extend their marketing period beyond their summer peak months, which will increase their sales and farm viability.Aquaponics combines hydroponics and aquaculture. We also expect to be able to produce higher quality berries (taste) since our proximity to market allows a harvest time closer to peak flavor than field grown berries that must be shipped and thus harvested earlier or using varieties that are lower in sugars so bruising and damage is not as prevalent (but taste quality is lost). The greenhouse berry market will primarily produce product using day-neutral varieties and provide fruit for market during the fall-winter-spring period when field grown berries are at their highest prices. Given the success of expanding greenhouse strawberry production in the Netherlands, we fully expect to be able to demonstrate successful designs for this same product to NY producers. Some of the constraint to adapting either method is the lack of scientifically gathered information to document results, even though there is much grey-literature that supports these growing methodologies. ![]() Aquaponic production is a very small fraction of hydroponic production, even though it affords the opportunity of increasing the overall sustainability of both fish and plant production. Most strawberries grown in NYS are sold within 50 miles of the farm, while residents of New York City never even see home-grown fruit, instead relying primarily on strawberries imported from California and Florida from 2011 to 2014, New York experienced a 15% drop in production of leafy greens.While greenhouse production of flowers and almost all vegetable crops is commonly practiced, hydroponic production is still quite limited.The market movement towards locally produced and organic is providing new opportunities to re-visit the economic feasibility of hydroponic production in northeast climates. Even during peak harvest months (July-August), only a small fraction of NYS residents have access to home-state strawberries. New York State ranked eighth in strawberry production in 2014 with 3.2 million pounds (M lb), but falls far behind the top five states (CA 2758 M lb, FL 207 M lb, OR 15 M lb, NC 15 M lb, WA 10 M lb, MI 4.5 M lb, WI 3.8 M lb, PA 3.3 M lb) (USDA, 2014). However, Northeastern states contribute very little to production of these crops. consumer demand for spring greens such as spinach has skyrocketed and been met by corresponding increases in production. This then provides an opportunity for the small scale producer and that opportunity can be partially addressed through aquaponics and product diversification. It is well known at this point that consumers are placing an added value on locally produced products. Non Technical Summary New York consumers have limited access to fresh, high quality, locally grown produce at competitive pricing with imported product.
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