Hannah Shin

Mr.Dahlhausen

Chemistry

8 December 2014

Can Plants Grow Without Soil?

Plants and gardening, usually put together, is a famous hobby for people who enjoy the outdoors

and nature. Soil is an essential element for almost, if not all, plants to grow. Soil carries all the main

nutrients that help nurture and grow a feeble sprout into a strong holding, mature plant. In recent years

man has discovered an alternative way to grow these plants without the use of soil and; this new method

known as “Hydroponics”, has revolutionized gardening knowledge tremendously. What is in soil that

makes it essential for plant growth? What are Hydroponics and its history? How does it work? Why is it

so amazing? These are just merely a few questions this paper will answer.

Soil, as mentioned before as probably the most essential thing for a plant’s growth process. The

reason soil is needed for plant growth because of the nutrients that is contained within it; different types

of soil have different types of nutrients most of which contain many different minerals acting as food for

the plant. Also within the soil is a lot of erosion from rock, decomposed matter, and a lot of oxygen that is

sucked into the soil. Growing plants with soil may seem simple but it is more easily said than done; there

are any factors that must be kept track of while taking care of a plant with soil such as the amount of

water your give and how tight the soil is packed on top of the roots. One little mistake can deteriorate the

plant and prevent it from growing without dying. For a while, soil was the only option for plant growth

and it was the most successful method for being assured that the plant will grow, but now we have a brand

new method that is also environment friendly.

This new method is called Hydroponics. Hydroponics roots from the Latin language and is

defined as “working waters”. First it is called this because the process of Hydroponics includes soilless

garden and the key essential is water. The history of Hydroponics is interesting because the Green House
Industry started it. Soil was really reliable at the time for growing crops, but the problem was the amount

of insects eating away at the plants making them useless. As this method developed, in the years of 1925

to 1935, this method was given a lot of support for development with tons of people working on it to

perfect it ("History of Hydroponics."). It tremendously helped America and countries all around the

world by improving agriculture in troubled areas. Using only water, the plant should be able to help its

self and grow using the minerals that the water provides. Hydroponics is also a simpler way to grow a

plant because of how precise everything is; one can measure how much of each nutrient the plant needs

with hydroponics, but with soil the amount of nutrients is harder to measure (Nicholls 55).

The process of Hydroponics is quite simple, the process only requires water and some necessary

nutrients a plant need for growth, no other energy sources are needed for this process ("What Is

Hydroponics?"). Most anyone can do it with a controlled climate, but one has pay close attention to it

everyday making sure the water does not fog up or go rotten. To be on the safe side it was best to change

the water every so often or filtering the water. Hydroponics was and continues to be an amazing method

for sufficiently growing plants.

Hydroponics, while developing, helped the agriculture state in many areas. Three ways it helped, helps,

and will help humans today is from World War II, Japan, and the vast unknown outer space. It helped

America during World War II when a small percentage of American troops were stationed in the desert

with limited water and food. In order for plant growth to happen, they realized that using hydroponics to

grow food wastes less water than using soil, which was also very limited and in terrible condition

("Critical Reading and Discussion Questions."). One way it helps in present day is in Japan where there is

very limited space for good soil and crop growth. Japan is very well known for its vast population and

because of it; it usually tends to get very crowded. As japan tried to hold on to more land while having to

feed their population, they turned to hydroponic rice production, which does not eat up their landmasses

while providing a sufficient way for agriculture to strive ("Hydroponics Growing Future”). A way it will
help in the future is when exploring further into the outer space region. Many space-studying companies,

such as NASA, strive to try and figure out if life is possible on planets apart from earth. The most popular

planets for study are Mars and the moon, though both of these planets seem most compatible for life to

exist, there is no oxygen. To obtain oxygen, there needs to be plants to produce it but there is no soil or

fertilizer to grow plants. Recent discoveries and studies show that both Mars and the moon show signs of

water on them, which shows a sign of hope for life. Now with this discovery, there are several space

programs hoping to use hydroponics to grow plants; if successful, the more plants there are, the more

oxygen will be produced making it more a more possible for life on these planets ("Hydroponics Growing

Future”). These examples are just a few of the ways Hydroponics is helping in the simplest and most

complicated ways.

In conclusion, hydroponics may be a more reliable source for plant growth than soil. The only reason soil

is mostly used everywhere is because of well known it is compared to Hydroponics. Because of

Hydroponics, humans have more opportunities to learn beyond what they already know.

Word Count: 978

Works Cited

"Critical Reading and Discussion Questions." ​Past, Present, and Future of Hydroponics.​ N.p., n.d. Web.

16 Nov. 2014.

"History of Hydroponics." ​History.​ N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

"Hydroponics Growing Future - HowStuffWorks." ​HowStuffWorks​. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

Nicholls, Richard. "The Nutrient Solution." ​Beginning Hydroponics: Soilless Gardening: A Beginner's

Guide to Growing Vegetables, House Plants, Flowers, and Herbs without Soil​. Philadelphia,

PA: Running, 1990. N. pag. Print.

"What Is Hydroponics?" ​Simply Hydroponics.​ N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.