During the 1600's several techniques were used to protect horticultural crops against the cold. These included glass lanterns, bell jars, cold frames and hot beds covered with glass. In the seventeenth century, low portable wooden frames covered with an oiled translucent paper were used to warm the plant environment much as plastic row covers do today. In Japan, straw mats were used in combination with oil paper to protect crops from the severe natural environment. Greenhouses in France and England during the same century were heated by manure and covered with glass panes. The first glass house built in the 1700's, used glass on one side only as a sloping roof. Later in the century, glass was used on both sides. The glasshouse was used for fruit crops such as melons, grapes, peaches and strawberries and only rarely for vegetable production. The developers of this new technology kept market profitability in mind: they produced crops which appealed to the wealthy and privileged, the only people who could afford the luxury of fresh fruit produced out of season in greenhouses.

Greenhouse food production was not fully established until the introduction of polyethylene. In the U.S., the first use of polyethylene as a greenhouse cover was in 1948, when Professor Emery Myers Emmert at the University of Kentucky, used the less expensive material in place of more expensive glass. Professor Emmert is considered the father of plastics in the U.S. because he developed many principles of plastic technology for agricultural purposes through his research on greenhouses, plastic mulches and row covers.

The development of hydroponics has not been rapid. In the U.S., interest began to develop in the possible use of complete nutrient solutions about 1925. Greenhouse soils had to be replaced at frequent intervals or be maintained from year to year by adding large quantities of commercial fertilizers. As a result of these difficulties, research workers in certain U.S. agricultural experiment stations turned to nutrient solution culture methods as a means of replacing the natural soil system with either an aerated nutrient solution or an artificial soil composed of chemically inert aggregates moistened with nutrient solutions.

Between 1925 and 1935, extensive development took place in modifying the methods of the plant physiologists to large scale crop production. Workers at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station improved the sand culture method. The water and sand culture methods were used for large scale production by investigators at the California Agricultural Experiment Station. Each of these methods involved certain fundamental limitations for commercial crop production which were partially overcome with the introduction of the subirrigation system initiated in 1934 at the New Jersey and Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station. While there was commercial interest in the use of such systems, hydroponics was not widely accepted due to the high cost in construction of the concrete growing beds. In the post-W.W.II years, there was a bloom of interest in the Southwest US in gravel culture of tomatoes and cucumbers. However, the systems were not perfected and were eventually abandoned.

After a period of approximately 20 years, interest in hydroponics was renewed with the advent of plastics. Plastics were used not only in the glazing of greenhouses, but also in lining the growing beds rather than beds made of concrete. Plastics were also important in the introduction of drip irrigation. Again, numerous promotional schemes involving hydroponics became common with huge investments made in hydroponic growing systems. Escalating oil prices, starting in 1973, substantially increased the costs of CEA heating and cooling. This along with fewer chemicals registered for pest control caused many bankruptcies and a decreasing interest in hydroponics.

Almost another 20 years have passed since the last real interest in hydroponics, but growers are once again establishing CEA/hydroponic systems. This is especially true in regions where there are environmental concerns in controlling any pollution of groundwater with nutrient wastes or soil sterilants. Today growers appear to be much more critical in regard to site selection, structures, the growing system, pest control and markets.

Future of Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a relatively new technology, evolving rapidly since its inception 70 years ago. From its origins in academic research, to its utilization in industry and government, hydroponics has found many new applications. It is a versatile technology, appropriate for both developing countries and high-tech space stations. Hydroponic technology can efficiently generate food crops from barren desert sand and desalinated ocean water, in mountainous regions too steep to farm, on city rooftops and concrete schoolyards and in arctic communities. In highly populated tourist areas where skyrocketing land prices have driven out traditional agriculture, hydroponics can provide locally grown high-value specialty crops such as fresh salad greens, herbs and cut flowers.

Like manufacturing, agriculture tends to move toward higher-technology, more capital-intensive solutions to problems. Hydroponics is highly productive and suitable for automation. However, the future growth of controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics depends greatly on the development of systems of production that are cost-competitive with those of open field agriculture. Improvements in associated technologies such as artificial lighting and agricultural plastics, and new cultivars with better pest and disease resistance will increase crop yields and reduce unit costs of production. Cogeneration projects, where hydroponic greenhouses utilize waste heat from industry and power plants, are already a reality and could expand in the next few years. Geothermal heat could support large expanses of greenhouses in appropriate locations.

It has been proposed that glasshouses located in deserts of the world could one day serve a dual purpose, where antenna could be embedded into the glass to receive energy radiation from an array of energy collectors in space, while at the same time facilitate hydroponic tomato production.

The economic prospects for controlled environmental agriculture and hydroponics may improve if governmental bodies determined that there are politically desirable effects of hydroponics that merit subsidy for the public good. Such beneficial effects may include the conservation of water in regions of scarcity or food production in hostile environments; governmental support for these reasons has occurred in the Middle East. Another desirable societal effect could be the provision of income-producing employment for chronically disadvantaged segments of the population entrapped in economically depressed regions; such employment produces tax revenues as well as personal incomes, reducing the impact on welfare rolls and improving the quality of life.

Hydroponics is a technical reality. Such production systems are producing horticultural crops where field-grown fresh vegetables and ornamentals are unavailable for much of the year. The development and use of controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics have enhanced the economic well being of many communities throughout the world.

Credits go to University of Arizona