How Does Classical Music Affect Plants?
An old wives' tale says that classical music makes plants grow stronger and healthier than other music, such as rock and what people consider negative music. Scientific research and field applications show whether this belief is actually true. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
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History
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Amateur botanist Dorothy Retallack studied the reaction of plants exposed to music in her book "The Sound of Music and Plants" published in 1973. The book showed the significance of her study of plants listening to different music in three different biotronic control chambers at Colorado Woman's College in Denver, with the result that they did better with classical music.
Research Results
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Retallack's study has been replicated by other researchers over the years. For example, researchers at China Agricultural University in Beijing found that strawberry plants stimulated by sound waves grew darker leaves, blossomed and bore fruit quicker and were more resistant to disease.
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Vineyard Application
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In 2006, agriculture professor Stefano Mancuso of the University of Florence led a research team to study the effects of music at the Il Paradiso di Frassina vineyard in Italy. The results showed that
plants listening to classical music had larger leaf area per vine, and that plants not listening to it had delayed development.
Type of Classical Music Matters
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Author and composer Don Robertson, founder of Dove Song, did a study using discordant classical music by Schoenberg and soothing classical music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The plants listening to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina did better than the ones listening to Schoenberg, which showed that the type of classical music is important.
Significance
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These results show that farmers may be able to increase the hardiness and life span of their crops by exposing them to classical music. The type of classical music they play should be soothing and positive.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit plants image by Lin from Fotolia.com
