This is a history of notable

hydroculture Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment. Terrestrial or ...

phenomena. Ancient hydroculture proposed sites and modern revolutionary works are mentioned. Included in this history are all forms of aquatic and semi-aquatic based horticulture that focus on flora: aquatic gardening, semi-aquatic crop farming,

hydroponics Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...

aquaponics Aquaponics is a food production system that couples aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish, snails or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to h ...

passive hydroponics Passive hydroponics, semi-hydroponics or Subirrigation, passive subirrigation is a method of growing plants without soil, peat moss, or Bark (botany), bark. Methods Instead an Chemically inert, inert porous medium transports water and fertiliz ...

, and modern

aeroponics Aeroponics is the process of cultivating plants in an air or mist environment, eliminating the need for soil or an aggregate medium. The term "aeroponic" originates from the ancient Greek: ''aer'' (air) and ''ponos'' (labor, hardship, or t ...

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

BasoliAntonio StageSet1 Meyerbeer Semiramide

One of the wonders of the ancient world was irrigated by the Euphrates River. It is uncertain if Sammu-ramat or

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

ordered them to be built between the 8th and 7th century BC Babylonia. The gardens were built partially on top of

ziggurat A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude'), ( Persian: Chogha Zanbilچغازنجبیل) is a type of massive ...

s, and plants were irrigated on channels. No direct evidence of the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tree ...

exists. However, there is archeological evidence, uncovered by

Robert Koldewey Robert Johann Koldewey (10 September 1855 – 4 February 1925) was a German archaeologist, famous for his in-depth excavation of the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick ...

, that ancient structures exist to support the technology used for these gardens. Ancient Greeks

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

and

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

have noted the Hanging Babylonian Gardens.

Precolonial America

chinampa Chinampa ( ) is a technique used in Agriculture in Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican agriculture which relies on small, rectangle, rectangular areas of fertility (soil), fertile arable land to grow agriculture, crops on the shallow lake beds in the Va ...

is a floating garden armada in a lake from the Xochimilco region, once Chinampan, of Mexico. This floating garden, still in use, can have an area of up to 10 meters by 200 meters. The agricultural output of the chinampa allowed the

postclassic In world history, post-classical history refers to the period from about 500 CE to 1500 CE, roughly corresponding to the European Middle Ages. The period is characterized by the expansion of civilizations geographically and the developme ...

Aztec civilization to flourish.

Historical Orient

Historically, fish have been raised within flooded rice fields in Indochina and China.McMurtry, M. R., Nelson, P.V., & Sanders, D.C. (1988)
Aqua-vegeculture systems
International Ag-Sieve, 1(3), article 7.

Living root bridges

There are 500-year-old bridges made by living roots in India, sculpted by the War-Khasis. These trees span rivers, and may be limited in connectivity to hydroculture.

Modern

Hydroculture found in nature

Ōhi'a Lehua,

Metrosideros polymorpha ''Metrosideros polymorpha'', the ''ōhia lehua'',; is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the Myrtus, myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is Endemism, endemic to the six largest Hawaiian Islands, islands of Hawaii, Hawaii. It is a member of the ...

, is a Hawaiian plant with roots that can grow suspended in extinct lava tubes. The roots of this plant are able to penetrate deep into the volcanic rock, to reach these hollow tubes, where they can collect moisture.

References

{{Hydroculture Hydroculture Horticulture History of agriculture