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The True Origins of Hydroponics · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi, thank you for joining me for another episode of Hydroponics Daily. I'm Dr. Russell Sharp.
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  Today's episode is about the history of hydroponics. And as I said in the last
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  episode, I don't believe that hydroponics started with the Hanging Gardens of
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  Babylon, as is often cited.
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  The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were an audacious and early attempt at,
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  horticulture but they weren't true hydroponics they were
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  irrigation of raised beds so they
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  took water from the euphrates and used advanced pumps
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  for the time that pulled the water up and then fed beds and they grew plants
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  in them but the the grow media they used was almost certainly soil so we can't
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  say it was soilless cultivation it was hydroponics they certainly wouldn't have
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  been using fertilizers as we know them today.
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  And so I wouldn't consider this to be hydroponics. And really,
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  there are lots of further early on examples of potential sources of where hydroponics
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  started that really we don't consider to be true hydroponics.
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  So Francis Bacon, a famous scientist and
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  author from the 17th century he talks about
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  growing plants in in water
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  or soilless cultivation but this is just as like an experiment and there were
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  further experiments throughout the pre the the 17th century a guy called john
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  woodward looked at growing spearmint and he found that the spearmint grew better
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  in contaminated less pure water than purer water.
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  Other scientists like Wilhelm Knopp, Julius von Sachs in the 19th century,
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  they found different chemical elements that plants needed by growing plants in water in solution.
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  However, they were never producing crops from them. They were not creating a yield.
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  And so this is really not hydroponics as we know it.
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  There was no recirculatory pump, there was no fertiliser, fertigation,
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  and there was no crops being made.
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  They couldn't get them through to producing a whole crop.
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  And then when hydroproducts was really invented as an art form,
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  as a method of crop production, that was in the 1930s.
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  And that was by a professor called William Frederick Guerrecker.
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  And he was at the University of California, and he showed that you could grow.
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  Plants really tall tomato crops with mineral
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  solutions and so he is considered by
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  myself and many others to be the founding father of hydroponics
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  he also incidentally invented this thing
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  called phosphorus priming where you certain seeds like
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  maize he found that maize required lots of
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  phosphorus in its seedling stage and they could
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  absorb lots of the phosphorus they need in that early
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  stage get them through to harvest and that
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  was the inspiration for one of our other products called
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  phosphorus liberator a phosphorus liberator is
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  used in arable crops in soil and without
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  his research and being knowing about his research that probably
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  would not exist it's probably our best-selling product that as
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  of this year so i've got will have william gerica
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  to thank from that from the 1920s and then
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  there were some early hydroponic farms about 10
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  years later one notable one was on
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  the island of ascension so that's a british overseas
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  territory but it was had an american army base and
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  the americans brought over their technology from the
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  university of california and elsewhere and set up a hydroponic farm probably
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  one of the first if not one of the first if not the first commercial hydroponic
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  farms that fed the u.s servicemen on the ascension and ascension's got really
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  bad soil to this day they rely on hydroponics for their fresh produce.
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  And then in the 1960s, a guy called Alan Cooper developed the nutrient film technique.
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  I think that might have been in the UK as well, but we'll have to check on that.
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  But yeah, that's where the history of hydroproducts comes from.
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  Really came into its own in the 1970s, and
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  that's where large-scale production in greenhouses and
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  real commercialization occurred in europe and
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  then following on from that in the 2010s that's
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  where led lights came in and then we've seen vertical farming developed from
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  that without led lights we wouldn't have vertical farms they would just get
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  too hot imagine layers layer upon layer a lasagna of sodium lamps in a warehouse
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  it would just go on fire with the heat so led lights were crucial for that,
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  interestingly going back to ascension the view there is a report online
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  about how hydroponics has
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  developed on ascension naturally it's gone backwards and the
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  farm they set they keep on setting up farms and then they've had trouble with
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  spider mites particularly getting infested obviously supply of raw materials
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  things like rock wool and they're relying on nutrient film technique and now
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  they've gone back and they were using a closed system now they've gone to a
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  run waste system, which in a.
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  In an island with fragile ecosystem might not
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  be the best option but when they they don't
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  have supplies of sterilization uv ozone
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  sterilization for a circulatory system circulatory
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  systems is going to struggle and because
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  you're just going to get build up of basically biological material
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  and pests and diseases in that in that in that
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  stream unless you can somehow sterilize it so and also
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  it's not a closed greenhouse they're using on ascension island it's
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  they use sort of like mesh tents because it's a tropical
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  system so it's really interesting there's a there's a
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  report by lee morris for the blue marine
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  foundation and basically the the royal
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  mail the the the postal service
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  in the uk they they stopped their their ship
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  that trapped that serviced ascension islands even though it's a british overseas
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  territory i mean it's a volcano in the middle of the ocean and so they've had
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  to go back to hydroponics and they're desperately scrambling to get hydroponics
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  on there because they've got a real problem with the health of the.
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  Native population and the population there.
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  Type 2 diabetes and obesity is a big problem, obviously relying on preserved
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  processed foods and things like this.
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  So it's not just the American servicemen that needed hydroponics on Ascension.
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  So as I say, hydroponics, it didn't start with the Babylonians,
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  but certainly pump and irrigation part of hydroponics did.
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  It didn't start in the 17th century with Francis Bacon and people like that,
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  but that's where they looked at.
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  They were able to experiment with soilless cultivation and soilless growth of plants,
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  but it really started with Professor Gerica at
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  the University of California in the 1930s and
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  if you've got any information about professor gerica more than
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  what i've said then please do get in touch it seems like
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  an interesting fella and he contributed a
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  lot to plant science and a lot that i've got to be thankful
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  for because he invented hydroponics and he invented phosphorus priming and that's
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  two areas where we sell a lot of products into so that's been hydroponics daily
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  for today the history of hydroponics see you again tomorrow for another episode
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  remember to follow this series so that you don't miss an episode. Thank you very much.