Abbey, Marie2019-03-132019-03-132018-09https://hdl.handle.net/11299/202105University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. September 2018. Major: Applied Plant Sciences. Advisors: Neil Anderson, Chengyan Yue. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 70 pages.Aquaponics, the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture into one growing system, continues to gain popularity on both a hobby and commercial scale. Many studies have been conducted to improve production methods, but few have examined consumer preferences for and attitudes toward aquaponics. The first chapter contributes knowledge to this area with results from an experimental auction that explored consumer preferences and identified potential market segments, with each segment having distinct preferences for produce grown in aquaponics systems. Using latent class analysis, participants were segmented into three classes. Two classes (totaling 70% of participants) were willing to pay more for aquaponically-grown lettuce than for the potting soil-grown counterparts; however, all bids were relatively low for a premium lettuce product. For all three segments, consumers’ increased rating of lettuce appearance and flavor had a significant positive impact on their bids. Consumers willing to pay the highest price premium reported the highest environmental concerns and product quality. Typical horticulture aquaponic production focuses on leafy greens and herbs with no known studies on the production potential of strawberries (Fragaria ✕ananassa Duchesne) or any other perennial crop. The second chapter 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 have a higher mass to water ratio, although aquaponic-grown strawberries can have a higher fresh weight yield.enAquaponicConsumer SegmentationProductionStrawberryThesis or Dissertation