Although historians can trace the growth of plants without soil back to the Babylonian times, it was not until the 1920s when it was shown to be useful in agriculture, not just for scientific research. This was in 1929, when a professor from the University of California in Berkeley called Professor William Frederick Gericke grew giant tomatoes in what he called aquaculture (a name changed to hydroponics due to the fact that the term aquaculture was discovered to have another meaning.
From the latin words hydro (water) and ponus (labour), hydroponics is now used to described the growth of a plant in a solution that does not use soil. The plant roots are able to absorb the nutrients through the water. Pretty much any plant will grow using hydroponics, although the success varies from plant to plant. It is very easy to do, with most young children at some stage using this very method to grow a plant at school: watercress in cotton wool!
