1860 & 1861 marked the end of a long search for the
nutrient source essential for plants' growing when two German botanists, Julius
von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop delivered the first standard formula for the
nutrient solutions dissolved in water, in which plants could be grown. This is
the origin of "nutriculture". Today, it is called the water culture.
By this method, plants' roots were totally immersed in a water solution that
contained minerals of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium
(Mg), sulfur (S) and calcium (Ca). They are now seen as the macro elements or
macronutrients (elements required in relatively large amounts).
However, surprisingly enough, the method of plants growing in water and
nutrient solution was only seen as experiments and merely used in the
laboratory for plant research.
Only when the greenhouse industry appeared that interest in the
application of the nutriculture practice was eyed on in 1925. Researchers were
caring about the issues of soil cultural methods with soil structure,
fertility, and pests. They worked extensively to implement the benefit of
nutriculture to large-scale crop production.
In the early 1930s, W.F. Gericke of the University of California at
Berkeley experimented with nutriculture to produce agricultural crops.
Initially, he called this process aquaculture but dropped it after learning
that this term has been used to describe aquatic organism culturing.
W.A. Setchell recommended the term "hydroponics" to Gericke in 1937.
So the name goes.
The word was derived from two Greek words. Hydro (“water”) and Ponos (“labor”)—
literally “water working.”
Gericke began publicizing the practice of growing plants in a water
solution while he was at the U.C. Berkley.
However, he met up with the skepticism from the public and the university. His
colleagues even denied the use of the on-ground greenhouses for his study.
Gericke declared them wrong by successfully growing 25-foot tall tomato plants
in nutrient-filled solutions.
The university still doubted his account of successful cultivation and
requested two other students investigate his claim. The two performed the
research and reported their findings in an agriculture bulletin 1938, titled "The
Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil"
They confirmed the application of Hydroponics but concluded their research that
crops grown with Hydroponics are no better than those grown on quality soils.
However, they missed many advantages of agricultural Hydroponics in comparison
with the cultural practice. The benefits that nowadays any
hydroponic growers know by heart.
The earliest well-known application of Hydroponic plant cultivation
was in the early 1940s when Hydroponic was used on the Wake Island, a soil-less
island in the Pacific Ocean. This island was used as a refueling stop for Pan
American Airlines. The lack of soil meant that it's impossible to grow with the
cultural method and it was incredibly expensive to airlift fresh vegetables.
Hydroponics solved the issues excitingly well and provided fresh vegetable for
the whole troops on this distant island.
After World War II, Hydroponic cultivation was still used widely by
the military. The U.S. army planted a 22 ha at Chofu, Japan.
In the 1950s, the soil-less method of Hydroponics expanded to a variety of
countries including England, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the USSR, and
Israel.
