Egyptian Hydroponics

• Hieroglyphic records suggest that the Egyptians grew plants in water around 1460 B.C.
  
  

Babylonian Hydroponics

• The hanging gardens of Babylon (circa 600 B.C.) are thought to have employed sand culture, a simple form of hydroponics.
  
  

Aztec Floating Gardens

• In the1500s Spanish observers reported that the Aztecs started seedlings in floating beds that could be moved around on fresh water lagoons.
  
  

Chinese Hydroponics

• After returning from China in the late 1200s, Marco Polo reported seeing plants growing in floating beds.
  
  

Eurpopean Advancements

• From 1600 to 1800, Francis Bacon, Jan van Helmont, Robert Boyle, John Woodward, Nicolas de Saussure and Jean Boussingault each made scientific contributions that would eventually lead to hydroponics.
  
  

Scientific Water Culture of Plants

• Early in the 1860s two German researchers, Julius von Sachs and J. A. L. W. Knop, succeeded in growing plants completely in an aqueous nutrient solution, calling their method "nutriculture."