| What is Hydroponics |
Hydroponics is the growing of plants without the use of soil. In it's place a medium such as gravel, sand, peat, vermiculite, sawdust and in some cases only water and air are used. To this medium (whatever that might be) a nutrient solution is added, containing all the essential elements needed by the plant for its normal growth and development.
Hydroponics basically means working water ("hydro" means "water" and "ponos" means "labor"). Many different civilizations have utilized hydroponic growing techniques throughout history. As noted in Hydroponic Food Production (Fifth Edition, Woodbridge Press, 1997, page 23) by Howard M. Resh: "The hanging gardens of Babylon, the floating gardens of the Aztecs of Mexico and those of the Chinese are examples of 'Hydroponic' culture. Egyptian hieroglyphic records dating back several hundred years B.C. describe the growing of plants in water." Hydroponics is hardly a new method of growing plants. However, giant strides have been made over the years in this innovative area of agriculture.
Currently there are approxmently 30,000 acres of hydroponics in the world with only 800 of of those in the United States.
These are some good pages with additional history.