Growing plants in water is hydroponics growing plants in the air is aeroponics just wondering if there is a specific term for growing plants in soil?

Answer

Its a word you may have heard before:

agriculture.

Recently, to distunguish soil CONTAINER growing from in-the-ground growing, the following terms have surfaced:

agriponics or agroponics (us)
terraponics (euro)
bio (euro)

Funny thing is, the "experts" can't really agree what the definitions of "hydroponics" and "aeroponics" are.

For example, a very popular definition of hydroponics is "a growing system in which the plants receive all of their nutrition from the irrigation solution, as opposed to the soil or potting medium." Notice no mention is made of the substate (potting medium). This means that growing plants in any commercial potting mix (which use peat, coconut, vermiculite, perlite, compost, etc - none of which are soil) with a nutrient solution is hydroponics... even if you only water once a week or whatever.

Aeroponics is even more wishy-washy.

My point is that there is not a clear line that distinguishes one method from the other; most systems are really a fusion of two or more methods.

The definition of hydroponics is literally working water...or as used today the science of growing plants without soil. So growing plants in a commercial potting mix containing peat, coconut, vermiculite, perlite is considered hydroponics. As is growing plants in sand or gravel or any inert media. Aeroponics is a form of hydroponics, it refers to growing plants with their roots suspended in the air and being misted, which is growing plants without soil or hydroponics. In my opinion it is a term that was coined to avoid the negative connotations associated with hydroponics.