Growing food is becoming more challenging due to climate change, which has a negative impact on food quality, nutritional value and yields. A sustainable solution to the challenges of modern agriculture is to adopt agricultural practices with a low environmental footprint while preserving biodiversity and ensuring food security by introducing foods with high nutritional value. At the same time, today's consumers are looking for novel, highly nutritious foods that enhance their overall health and well-being. Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is recognized not only as a medicinal plant, but also as a desirable green leafy vegetable rich in phytonutrients, demonstrating its significant potential for human nutrition. Stinging nettle is a perennial plant species with a high content of specialized metabolites and known for their numerous biological and functional properties that benefit human health. Although it grows wild, efforts are being made to introduce stinging nettle into agricultural production in order to obtain uniform quality and safe plant material. Hydroponic cultivation of nettle, although not yet widespread, offers numerous advantages over soil cultivation, including reduced risks associated with outdoor production. This method allows the management of abiotic factors such as air temperature and relative humidity, as well as nutrient solution parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen and temperature. In addition, selected agrotechnical measures such as balanced fertilization and controlled irrigation regimes can influence the morphological characteristics and yield but also the content of specialized metabolites in the plant material. Hydroponic cultivation also enables year-round production in a completely closed system that maximizes the use of resources and energy, creating a circular system and thus greater sustainability and resilience of the entire cultivation system. The aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate the possibilities of nettle cultivation in a hydroponic system, respectively in floating system and ebb and flow system, and to investigate the influence of four nutrient solutions with different compositions of macro and micronutrients and two irrigation regimes on the agronomic properties, nitrate quantity and content of specialized metabolites as well as the antioxidant capacity of fresh nettle leaves. The nettle was grown in a hydroponic system using Floating Hydroponic (FH) and Ebb and Flow (EF) techniques. Two monofactorial experiments were conducted in the springsummer growing period, with nutrient solution and irrigation regime as factors, laid out in 3 replicates using the randomized block design method. During the cultivation period, the abiotic factors of the greenhouse and the nutrient solution were continuously monitored and adjusted if necessary. In the cultivation of stinging nettle using the FH technique, 3 consecutive cuts were obtained, while in the cultivation using the EF technique, 8 consecutive cuts were obtained, 6 of which were analyzed for the purposes of this study. Morphological and chemical analyses of the plant material were carried out after each consecutive cut. Cultivation of stinging nettle using the FH technique in a nutrient solution with an EC value of 1.7 mS/cm resulted in plant material with higher average values for dry matter (19.92% DM), ascorbic acid content (91.73 mg/100 g fw) and total phenols (309.59 mg GAE/100 g), while cultivation in a nutrient solution with an EC value of 1.5 mS/cm resulted in the highest cumulative yield (4.2 kg/m2) with the lowest average amount of nitrate in fresh nettle leaves (5069 mg/kg NO3-). The antioxidant capacity of nettle leaves using the FRAP method ranged from 963.27 to 3237.62 μmol TE/L using the FH technique. Cultivation of nettle using the EF technique with irrigation every 72 h resulted in higher values of all nettle agronomic traits in all six vegetation periods, except in the fifth vegetation period. Irrigation every 48 h had a positive effect on the content of ascorbic acid, total phenols, non-flavonoids and flavonoids (average 98.80 mg/100 g fw, 245.73 mg GAE/100 g, 128.33 mg GAE/100 g, 117.40 mg GAE/100 g) and resulted in lower nitrate levels in the nettle leaves (average 3570 mg/kg NO3 -). The antioxidant capacity value was higher when cultivated using the EF technique than when cultivated using the FH technique, confirming that nettle leaves obtained by cultivation in the EF hydroponic system are an excellent source of antioxidants. This study has shown that both hydroponic cultivation techniques investigated (FH and EF) prove to be promising hydroponic techniques for the cultivation of nettle. However, the EF technique, in combination with an optimized irrigation regime and nutrient solution content, can significantly improve the yield and quality of nettle leaves. To achieve an optimal yield of nettle leaves with high nutritional value in hydroponic cultivation, it is recommended to use a nutrient solution with an EC value of 1.5 mS/cm and an EF technique with an irrigation regime every 72 h. The results of this research will expand the existing knowledge on the possibilities of growing nettle with modern hydroponic techniques and provide recommendations for the composition of the nutrient solution and the irrigation regime that will lead to an optimal yield and high nutritional quality of the fresh plant material. This research also provides an important scientific contribution on the role and effect of water stress on the increase in the content of specialized metabolites in the fresh nettle leaf with the aim of obtaining nutrient-rich plant material. These results will serve as a basis for further research in the field of growing vegetable, medicinal and aromatic plants using modern hydroponic techniques.