History of hydroponics 2

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.