Hydroponic Gardening

Hydroponic Gardening by Natalie Danford The word Hydroponics comes from Greek “hydro” meaning water and “pronos” meaning labor, but this type of horticulture is known by many names such as aquaculture, nutriculture, soilless culture, and tank farming. The name hydroponics is believed to have been first introduced in 1937 when it was shown that tomato plants could be grown without soil, but its history goes back as far as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Even the 1st century Roman Emperor Tiberius was known to grow cucumbers in stones rather than soil. In the 1960’s, US soldiers used hydroponics on the Pacific Islands. When the US soldiers used the hydroponic systems, it gave them the ability to grow fruits and vegetables. By the 2000’s, people began to advocate for hydroponics in space for growing fruits and vegetables. The type of rock used for hydroponics does not matter, but fertilizer or nutrients must be added to the water to feed the plants. These are the nutrients that a plant would normally get from the soil. A hydroponic garden can be anywhere or any size as long as the plants have the basic things needed to grow, like a medium to grow in, nutrients, and sunlight. If you have a small home or a really large place to grow, you can put your garden anywhere. Since the purpose of hydroponics is mostly a food source, it is a good way to grow food if there is a chemical leak, a nuclear waste spillage, a fire, or anything else that contaminates the soil. Another reason to use hydroponics is so you can grow things indoors when you have a bad climate. If in the summer its hot and you don’t have enough water because it evaporates, or in the winter when its too cold and the water freezes, or you don’t have a way to heat the water, that's a good time to put your system indoors where you can control the temperature. You can put a hydroponic system just about anywhere - in a closet, indoors, outdoors, a greenhouse, or even a wall (vertical gardens). Just make sure that you have a medium, nutrients, water, sun or a grow light, the seeds or plants, and time.