The history of hydroponics has been around since Ancient times. The worlds rice crop has been grown hydroponically in Ancient time to modern day. The first known of water based hydroponics is in the hanging gardens of Babylon.

The hanging garden of Babylon is growing beside the river Euphrates and is one of the 7 wonders of the world.The garden was hand watered using a chain system to water the garden.

The Aztecs gardened on Chinampa which were fertile land that were surrounded by water on shallow lake. Chinampas are located where Mexico City is today.

The Aztecs gardened on Chinampa

Chinampas are artificial islands that were created by interweaving reeds with stakes beneath the lake’s surface, creating underwater fences.

A buildup of soil and aquatic vegetation would be piled into these “fences” until the top layer of soil was visible on the water’s surface.

These agricultural lands received this nickname due to the illusion they caused. The bodies of land appeared to be islands.

The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book Sylva Sylvarum or ‘A Natural History’ by Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a popular research technique after that.

The earliest modern reference to hydroponics (last 100 years) was by a man named William Frederick Gericke. While working at the University of California, Berkeley, he began to popularize the idea that plants could be grown in a solution of nutrients and water instead of soil.

The earliest food production in greenhouses was possibly the growing of off-season cucumbers under “transparent stone” for the Roman Emperor Tiberius during the first century. The technology was rarely employed, if at all, during the following 1500 years.