Why Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is a method of growing without medium, medium is the matter that normally holds up the roots, in other words "soil" in normal circumstances. Hydroponics (From the Greek hydro for water and ponos for labour) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, either in water or another inert medium such as coco or rockwool, but without the usual soil type substrate that you get in your outdoor garden. Most plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only, as with Aeroponics, Oxy-Buckets and NFT systems, or in an inert medium such as perlite, rockwool, or coconut husk.

Hydroponics is a combination of Biology and Chemistry, it is the reduction of biological processes into managed steps utilising specific measures to alter the outcome of plant production. This link to the Royal Society for Chemistry gives a break down of every element that exists on earth, here you'll find a range of podcasts that explain each element based around the periodic table.



As early as the 19th Century researchers discovered that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water. In nature, soil acts as a nutrient reservoir, but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth.As nutrients contained in the soil are disolved, the plant is able to absorbe them through the process of osmosis and ion-exchange. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant's water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive. Pretty much any plant will grow with hydroponics. Hydroponics is also a standard technique used in science and teaching.

The study of crop nutrition began thousands of years ago. Ancient history tells us that various experiments were undertaken by Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.), while several botanical writings by Dioscorides date from the first century AD.

The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil, or hydroponically as it has become known, was the 1627 book "Sylva Sylvarum"  by Sir Francis Bacon. Water culture became a popular research technique after that and in 1699 John Woodward published his Hydroponics experiments with spearmint. His findings demonstrated that plants in distilled water did not thrive as well as those in less pure "natural" water.

By 1842 a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been made out, and the discoveries of the German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop in the mid 1800's resulted in the development of the technique of soilless cultivation. It quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used today. The technique used to grow plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions only was known as "solution culture" and has now  come to be a reference standard for the production of high volume, high value or high turn-around plant, fruit, flower and vegetables. Solution culture has now moved on with the benefit of science and modern technology, but can still be considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium. 

In 1929 Prof. W. F. Gericke (UCA Berkeley) publicly promoted "solution culture" for agriculture. First termed by him as "aquaculture" Gericke became a sensation by growing 25ft tomato vines in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil. Gericke introduced the term hydroponics in 1937 (although he suggested by Dr. W. A. Setchell coined the phrase) for the culture of plants in water (from the Greek hydros, "water", and ponos, "labor").

Reports of Gericke's claims that hydroponics would revolutionize agriculture prompted a huge surge in interest. Gericke refused to reveal his secrets claiming he had done the work at home on his own time. This refusal eventually resulted in his leaving the University of California. In 1940, he wrote the book, Complete Guide to Soilless Gardening.

The most common errors when growing in soil is over and under watering, so hydroponics prevents this from occurring as water can be made available to the plant, recirculated, actively aerated therfore eliminating anoxic conditions which drown root systems in soil.

An early success with hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific used for refueling PanAm Aircraft. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables.

In the '60s Allen Cooper of England developed the Nutrient Film Technique. The Land Pavilion at Disney's EPCOT Center opened in '82 and features a variety of hydroponic techniques. Recently, NASA completed extensive hydroponics research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS. Hydroponics is to be used on Mars using LED lighting.

In '78 hydroponics expert Dr. Howard Resh published "Hydroponics Food Production." This book promoted the 3-part base nutrients formula that is still a major component of today's hydroponics gardening.