Hydroponics: the story
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The term "hydroponics" (from the greek cultivation in water) is a technique that excludes agricultural roots of the contact with the ground.
Hydroponics provides compared to traditional agriculture productions rich, lower costs, quality control, water conservation and respect for the environment.
And 'widespread, especially in countries like the Netherlands, working under strict rules to prevent pollution of groundwater, and they experience the particular application contexts: in polluted areas or radioactive (like Chernobyl), in the arid areas of 'Africa in the bases in Antarctica and in the aerospace missions.
This is an old technique: known to the Babylonians and Aztecs, was also described by Marco Polo in China in 1200: a man discovers that possibility in a rather random, and uses where nature allows.
The first attempts to reproduce in a laboratory hydroponic experiments we find them in some coarse Belgians in 1600, but still no one has understood that water alone is not enough for the survival of the plant, but are also needed nutrients, oxygen and carbon dioxide.
At the end of that century, in England, the first real discovery: the earth by mixing water and using the mixture as a nutrient solution the plants survive.
It'll take a few decades because they are understood the dynamics of the primary life and development of plants, and the role played by the interaction of external factors (light, heat, humidity), and only at the end of 1700 it will clear the bases of the process photosynthesis.
Throughout the following century, the topic has not ceased to be of interest to scientists and researchers, but in 1930 there will be a turning point from research topic reserved for biologists and botanists, this ingenious method of cultivation is now conceived as a means of large-scale production, and was born the term "hydroponics".
This historical event bears the signature of Dr. William F. Gericke, Professor University of California at Berkeley, considered the father of modern hydroponics: the well-known photos of the era, which became known in America, where it appears alongside huge portrait of tomato plants.
The plant was still too complex for effective use of the farmers and in subsequent years was reworked and revised, improving the system of oxygen, reducing the overall structure.
In 1945, to provide for the maintenance of the soldiers, the army built hydroponic plants in Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Hawaii, ensuring supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables to his soldiers: the result is so encouraging to push the Army to invest in , developing very extensive cultivation spread a little 'anywhere in the world.
These improvements have encouraged the spread of soilless cultivation in the whole world, especially in Holland, Spain, France, England, Germany, Sweden, USSR and Israel.
The arid areas with poor soil were ideal: it began in the 60's to study systems for domestic use, although initially they were not a few difficulties.
At the end of 70 years, with the advent of modern plastics and PVC, the very conception of the plant takes a leap forward, and new materials allow you to completely review the essential parts such as pumps, pipes, water tanks, making them more practical and economical hydroponics back booby wave crest where, through thick and thin, no longer has to be stopped until today.
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Tags: growing in water , hydroponics , no soil , hydroponics history
