Hydroponics: Growing Without Soil The science of growing plants without soil has been known and used for more than one-hundred years. The word “hydroponics”, however, is comparatively new. Dr. W.E. Gericke is usually given credit for coining the word, which translated from Greek, means “working water”. The famous hanging gardens of Babylon were probably on of the first attempts to grow plants hydroponically. The work of Dr. Greicke in the 1920’s and 1930’s in California, however, is generally considered ....