A number of entrepreneurs took up hydroponics early on, as a direct result of Dr. Gericke’s work. The first with any measure of success being Ernest W. Brundin, a University of California graduate of Montebello, California. A well-to-do businessman, Mr. Brundin was taken by the early accounts of Gericke’s work, and independently started his own greenhouse tomato farm, experimenting by himself at producing commercial quantities of soilless grown tomatoes. Once established, his one-half acre was producing 40 tons of tomatoes a year, and he believed he could eventually produce 100 tons to the acre. He named his new concern The Chemical Culture Company, and was so successful, that by May of 1938 he had already secured contracts to supply the dining cars of eastbound transcontinental trains. Eventually Brundin secured steamship dining contracts, along with shipping them for sale, as far away as New York City. In early tests, Dr. Gericke had warmed the nutrient solution of his tanks with soil-heating cables, believing at the time that warming the nutrient temperature would increase growth. An earlier attempt at beginning a commercial tomato farm failed due to the prohibitively expensive electricity cost these cables required. Brundin turned to solving this issue through steam, developing and patenting a growing system that connected a hundred growing tanks to a centrally located reservoir. The temperature of the nutrient was raised to 80°F by a steam boiler, before being mechanically pumped back to the growing beds on a timed schedule, after which it would drain back by gravity to the reservoir. Brundin was almost as active as Gericke in promoting hydroponics, and in fact, held a weeklong exposition of his “now world-famous plants” in the downtown location of The May Company, a leading department store in Los Angeles. Brundin can be credited with patenting the first hobby hydroponic system, called the “chemical agriculture system” in 1938. He also developed and patented the first passive hydroculture pots for home use, described as a “double-decked” pot that contained the nutrient solution below a growing pot with a wick that would carry the nutrient solution up to the roots of the plant, and included a built-in solution level indicator. Brundin wasn’t alone, however. Another one hundred tank commercial hydroponicum was established by a former student of Dr. Gericke’s near Sacramento, known as the California Packing Company. Rolland Langley of Mountain View, California, was a pioneer in establishing hydroponics as a teaching tool in schools. Used by thousands of teachers, in 1939 Langley developed a small leak proof hydroponics kit that could be used in
any school window, complete with a “... tank, tray, excelsior, rice hulls, and the plant nutrients.” On the east coast in August of 1938, ads for salesmen to act as distributors for a “... quick selling line of hydroponic chemicals and equipment...” began appearing in many newspapers, placed by the Modern Gardening Sales Company of New York City. In November of 1938, George Zarafonctis, the maître d’ of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Lubbock, Texas, opened a rooftop hydroponicum to supply fresh vegetables to the hotel restaurant. Many other examples of hydroponic entrepreneurship exist, too numerous to list here.
Expositions During 1939, a number of expositions featured exhibits highlighting the new soilless growing techniques, including the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, where growing tanks were constructed of glass, so that visitors could see the plant roots growing, the 1939 State Fair of Texas, and other state fairs as well.