ABSTRACT
Introduction The word hydroponics has its derivation from combining the two Greek words, hydro, meaning water, and ponos, meaning labor (i.e., working water). The word first appeared in a scientific magazine article (Science, 178:1) published in February 1937 and was authored by W. F. Gericke, who had accepted this word as was suggested by Dr. W. A. Setchell at the University of California. Dr. Gericke began experimenting with hydroponic growing techniques in the late 1920s and then published one of the early books on soilless growing (Gericke 1940). Later he suggested that the ability to produce crops would no longer be “chained to the soil but certain commercial crops could be grown in larger quantities without soil in basins containing solutions of plant food.” What Dr. Gericke failed to foresee was that hydroponic growing would be essentially confined to enclosed environments for growing high cash value crops and would not find its way into the production of a wide range of commercially grown crops in an open environment.
