Substrate system outperforms water culture systems for hydroponic strawberry production

George Kerrigan Hutchinson ¹ Lan Xuan Nguyen ¹ Zilfina Rubio Ames ¹ Krishna Nemali ² Rhuanito Soranz Ferrarezi ^1*

• ¹ University of Georgia, Athens, United States
• ² Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States

Strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) are extremely popular fruit worldwide for their multiple uses as a fresh fruit and in the food industry, with high demand from consumers and generating high profits for growers. In recent years, due to increasing costs of production and frequencies of extreme weather events, the use of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and hydroponics for strawberry production has become extremely popular in several Asian, European, and American countries. There are two main types of hydroponic systems: substrate and water culture. Substrate culture systems are the common choice for CEA strawberry production, whereas water culture systems are usually used for crops like leafy greens and herbs. Both types of systems have been studied independently for CEA strawberry production; however, there have previously been few direct comparisons between them. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of substrate and water culture systems for CEA strawberry production regarding yield and resource use efficiencies. 'Florida Brilliance' and 'Florida Beauty' strawberries were grown in a greenhouse in one substrate culture, where plants grow in soilless media, and three water culture systems: nutrient film technique (NFT), vertical tower (stacked nutrient flow), and aeroponics (nutrient misted roots). The system inputs (water, energy, and area) and outputs (yield, biomass, etc.) were quantified during the 129-day experiment. Yield was then used to calculate water (WUE), energy (EUE), and area (AUE) use efficiencies. Based on yield and resource use efficiencies, the substrate system performed the best, with the vertical tower system also showing promising performance. The results of this experiment will help growers understand the tradeoffs between hydroponic systems to maximize both profits and sustainability for CEA strawberry production.