In doing so he termed these Nutriculture systems “hydroponics”.Gericke of the University of California extended his laboratory experiments and work on plant nutrition. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Dr.The roots of these plants, pushing down towards a source of water, would grow though the floor of the raft and down into the water.These rafts, called Chinampas, had abundant crops of vegetables, flowers, and even trees planted on them.Aztecs build rafts of rushes and reeds, lashing the stalks together with tough roots.Roughly treated by their more powerful neighbors, denied any arable land, the Aztecs survived by exercising remarkable powers of invention.The Aztecs were a fierce tribe who settled in the valley of Mexico around Lake Tenochtitlan in 13th Century CE.The floating gardens of the Aztecs of Central America are another example.Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channel irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist.The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth.It was said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq on the banks of river Euphrates.The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were in fact an elaborate hydroponics system, into which fresh water rich in oxygen and nutrients was regularly pumped.It started in the ancient city of Babylon with its famous hanging gardens, which are listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.