Maximum Yield USA 2013 June | Page 28

MaX FaCTS hydrOPONiC NEwS, TiPS aNd Trivia Asian Vegetables Gain Ground According to the USDA, many fruits and vegetables commonly grown and popular in Asian countries are now as widely available on the shelves of United States grocery stores as conventional vegetables, which has led to more and more Asian produce being cultivated in the United States. Although it ranks far behind Mexico and Canada in farm exports to the United States, China now accounts for 5% of that market, supplying mushrooms, dried vegetables, water chestnuts, garlic and bamboo shoots. (Source: freshplaza.com) 26 Kindergarten Students Try Aquaponics The Rossville aquaponics farm in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has donated systems to three local kindergarten classes as well as some strawberry plants to get started. The donations happened after Andria Powers, a first-year kindergarten teacher, contacted the owner of Rossville to see if she could bring her class to his aquaponic farm for a field trip. Ryan Cox told her he had a better idea: why not bring the aquaponics farm to the class? Soon after, 80 kindergarten students were getting a hand setting up their own strawberry plants in one of three classroom's aquaponic systems. The fish necessary to provide the nutrients to the growing plants are a type of fancy goldfish called Japanese shubunkins, and were donated by The Water Garden in Hixson, Tennessee. (Source: catwalkchatt.com) Maximum Yield USA | June 2013