Hydroponics is a method of growing crops without soil, using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment. With certain protocols in place to minimize the presence of bugs, this can be a huge boon to Torah-observant Jews, greatly minimizing the need to check produce for insects, which we are strictly forbidden to eat. (If proper care is not taken, however, hydroponic produce can, in theory, be just as infested as traditionally grown produce.)

Despite its modern popularity, hydroponics is not a new innovation. Growing plants in nutrient-rich water rather than soil has ancient roots and is mentioned in the Talmud.1

What is not clear, however, is which blessing should be recited on produce grown without direct connection to the earth. Can it still be called pri ha’adamah—“fruit of the ground”?

While the Babylonian Talmud mentions hydroponically grown produce, it does not discuss the blessing recited over it. The Jerusalem Talmud, however, discusses bread made from wheat grown in a flowerpot that is not perforated to the ground, and whether one may recite hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz, “Who brings forth bread from the earth.”2

The question, however, is left unresolved.

Based on the discussion in the Jerusalem Talmud, some rule that the blessing over such bread would be mezonot, “Who creates various kinds of sustenance,” since one cannot accurately recite hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz over bread that did not actually grow from the ground. Following this logic, they further rule that the blessing for vegetables grown in this manner would be shehakol, “by Whose word all came to be,” since the blessing of ha’adamah presents the same issue—it did not actually grow from the ground.3

Most, however, disagree and maintain that since such produce was grown in the normal fashion in soil, and is not recognizably different from ordinary produce, the regular blessings of hamotzi, ha’eitz, or ha’adamah should be recited.4 This is the consensus that we follow.5

Hydroponically grown produce, however, is different, as there is no earth in the growing container, and the produce does not grow from the ground. As such, there is significant debate regarding the proper blessing.

Some contend that one should recite ha’adamah over hydroponically grown produce, offering a variety of reasons:

  1. Since the species is by nature ground produce, it retains that classification regardless of how this particular item grew.6
  2. Since the produce originates from a seed that grew in the ground, the blessing remains appropriate.7
  3. Since ordinary people refer to it as ground produce, the blessing fits by common usage.8

Others, however, contend that we do not follow the species, but rather the plain meaning of the blessing borei pri ha’adamah, which literally refers to produce that grew from the ground. Since this piece of produce did not in fact grow from the ground, one should recite shehakol.9

Although shehakol is admittedly also not the most precise blessing one could recite, it has the distinct advantage of being valid after the fact for virtually any food, making it the safest choice when the correct blessing is in doubt.

Since this is a matter of debate, and no single blessing can be recited with full certainty, many advise that one should either first recite ha’adamah and shehakol on other foods before eating the hydroponically grown produce, thereby avoiding the uncertainty altogether, or simply recite shehakol, since at the very least it is valid after the fact.10

At the same time, if one has already recited ha’adamah, one has fulfilled one's obligation after the fact, since there are significant halachic authorities who consider this the correct blessing. 11

Additionally, even those who maintain that one should recite shehakol on hydroponically grown produce generally apply this only when one knows that the produce was, in fact, grown hydroponically. If one does not know how it was grown, one may follow the presumption that it was grown in the ground and recite ha’adamah.12