The history of hydroponics starts back at the beginning of recorded history.

Many believe that the lost hanging gardens of Babylon were some of the first hydroponics gardens. There are walls in Egypt with section upon section of carvings depicting hydroponics gardening. Records from the Spanish Conquistadors indicate that hydroponics gardens were cultivated by the Aztecs. In the city of Tenochititlan, the Aztec people built floating rafts called chinampas, upon which they grew floating gardens.

They did this out of necessity because they did not have any “arable” land (land suitable for farming). Their floating rafts allowed plant roots to soak up nutrients from the organic sediment floating up from the bottom of Lake Texcoco. Scientific experiments and development of hydroponics as a science began in earnest during the 1600s, when other scientific inquiries were beginning to blossom.

A Belgian man, Jan Van Helmont, began experimenting with hydroponics. He planted a willow tree that he measured beforehand into a pre-measured amount of soil. At the conclusion of the experience, he weighed the willow and found that it had increased its weight substantially,while the soil had not lost weight. In that way, he found that plants
derive water and nutrients from the soil, but do not actually consume the soil in order to grow. That might seem elementary to us today, but it was groundbreaking (literally!) research at the time.

Later experiments with plant use of carbon dioxide to make oxygen and the involvement of light and chlorophyll in plant growth furthered the cause of large scale plant production. Conditions promoting plant growth could now be optimized and quantified.

Hydroponics took off as a viable large-scale production option when greenhouse growers found that growing plants in media other than soil would help eliminate pest, disease and fungal problems associated with soil. Soil is heavy and expensive to replace. Investment in hydroponics growing systems helped save money in the long run

During World War II, soldiers stationed on ships near rocky islands devoid of arable land were fed by hydroponics growers in the South Pacific. Today, a flourishing hydroponics farm in the Falkland Islands still provides produce for the locals and for cruise ships in the South Atlantic near Argentina. As space travel and inhabiting other planets became more of a possibility, NASA turned to hydroponics research as a potential method to provide fresh produce on the moon, mars or for long-term space flight.

With cities growing larger, and the population exploding, vertical farming has become a potential future source of locally produced fruits and vegetables for urban residents. “Urban farmers” could go to work in a building like the one pictured below, farm for the day and return home, a few blocks or a short subway ride away, at the end of the day.

Probably one of the most loved and best known examples of hydroponics is at the Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. There, they grow the world’s largest tomato plant, pumpkins shaped like Mickey Mouse and fresh
greens, herbs and vegetables for the Disney Resorts’ many gourmet restaurants. Today, home gardeners who enjoy fresh herbs, and vegetable gardening without the pest and disease problems presented by traditional gardening are
turning to hydroponics. The benefits are many, and include better taste and flavor of foods, as well as increased nutritional value.