To provide a method for hydroponic culture capable of obtaining leaf vegetables with high commodity value by omitting a lower leaf-stripping operation, bringing a culture operation to be efficient, moreover protecting generation of product damages and the like due to the lower leaf stripping operation in the hydroponic culture of leaf vegetables such as Japanese honewort, and an apparatus used therefor.

The method for hydroponic culture of crops belonging to the Umbelliferae, wherein the crops are cultivated by bringing the boundary between a shoot system and a root system to be under the water level (WL) of a culture solution to submerge a part of the shoot system, is provided. A groove-like planting cell for holding a holding carrier, in which a crop is planted, in a nutrient solution is also provided, The planting cell comprises an upper end opening part for protruding a shoot, side walls facing to each other and a bottom part. The facing side walls can nippingly hold the holding carrier, in which the crop is planted, at an arbitrary place, and can nippingly hold the holding carrier to be movable downward by receiving the extending force of the growing shoot of the planted crop.