From water culture to modern hydroponics

01

Early precursors: cultivating with water before hydroponics had a name

People have long cultivated plants in places where water played a special role. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are frequently cited as an early example, but neither their precise existence nor their technical design has been conclusively established archaeologically. They therefore cannot be identified unequivocally as a documented hydroponic system.

The chinampas in the Valley of Mexico are better documented. These artificial fertile plots were built from organic matter and sediment in a wetland environment. They were productive wetland and raised-field garden systems, but not hydroponics in the modern sense because the plants were not supplied exclusively through a controlled mineral nutrient solution.

02

Scientific foundations emerge in the 17th and 19th centuries

The decisive step was recognising that plants do not necessarily obtain their mineral elements from soil particles. In many cultivation systems soil serves as a reservoir, buffer and mechanical anchor, but dissolved nutrients are absorbed through the roots.

In the 17th century, researchers investigated how water and dissolved substances affected plant growth. By the 19th century, solution culture had become an important method in plant physiology. Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop developed nutrient solutions that allowed plants to be grown without natural soil and deficiency symptoms to be studied systematically.

03

William F. Gericke turns solution culture into a cultivation concept

In the 1920s and 1930s, plant physiologist William Frederick Gericke of the University of California applied the principles of solution culture to larger plants and practical cultivation. His experiments demonstrated publicly that high-yielding crops could grow in a mineral nutrient solution without natural soil.

Gericke is therefore often described as a pioneer of modern hydroponics. He shaped the public image of soilless cultivation and popularised the termhydroponics, derived from Greek word elements relating to water and work or activity. By then, however, the scientific foundations had already been laid by earlier research into plant nutrition.

In 1940 Gericke publishedThe Complete Guide to Soilless Gardeningan early comprehensive account of soilless gardening. Hydroponics thereby became accessible to a wider audience not merely as a laboratory technique, but as a practical cultivation method.

04

From experimental systems to standardised methods

After Gericke, attention shifted from basic feasibility to reliable control. Nutrient formulations, substrates, irrigation, oxygenation, hygiene and climate management gradually developed into technical disciplines in their own right.

05

Space research as an accelerator

Spaceflight gave soilless cultivation an additional purpose: plants had to grow reliably with limited space, water and mass. NASA research therefore investigated hydroponic and aeroponic methods for closed or partially closed life-support systems.

This research did not reinvent hydroponics, but it intensified requirements for root zones, water recycling, lighting, hygiene, nutrient management and resilience to failures. Many principles used in modern indoor and vertical farming have benefited from this development.

06

Hydroponics today: a tool, not an end in itself

Modern hydroponics ranges from a simple Kratky container on a windowsill to highly automated greenhouse and vertical-farming facilities. These systems share the ability to make root supply more predictable than in unmonitored soil. The particular technology nevertheless determines how much energy, control, maintenance and expertise are required.