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Whether you have a green thumb or just starting out with plants, you may have heard that sound affects plant growth. This belief dates back to 1848, when German professor Gustav Fechner wrote a book titled “Nanna,” meaning “soul-life of plants.” Fechner's work stated that our voices help plants grow. If true, his theory could apply to music as well, having the same positive effect on plants.
Great Britain's Prince Charles famously told an interviewer in 1986 that when he talked to his plants, they seemed to respond. His assertion that plants, including flowers, react to sound and voices was brushed off as the opinion of an eccentric Royal and derided by some experts, although this theory dates back to 1848. More recently, researchers have studied the effects of sound on plants and flowers, especially music, and found that they do respond.
There are several schools of thought on the way plants are affected by music, if at all. On one extreme is the argument that plants don't have ears and therefore don't have the mechanism to hear music. On the other is the argument that music is more than sound waves to be received by the ears but also is made up of waves with the potential to affect living things that lack ears with which to hear. Science seems to back up the latter argument.
Horticulturists and enthusiasts have believed for many years that talking to plants helps them to grow and flourish. The idea that "sound energy" can affect the growth process has resulted in numerous experiments with music. Once flowers are cut from the plant they no longer respond to stimuli, but flowering plants, such as fruit-producing crops, have been shown to do so. Critics of the theory believe that the improved plant health is a result of better care from the music-playing caregivers, who are more conscientious than others are.
Elevation plays a large role in the health and growth of plants. Elevation may affect the type and amount of sunlight that plants receive, the amount of water that plants can absorb and the nutrients that are available in the soil. As a result, certain plants grow very well in high elevations, whereas others can only grow in middle or lower elevations.
Over the decades, scientists, students and schoolchildren have performed numerous experiments on the effects of classical music on plants. The studies generally agree that constant exposure of classical music stimulates plant growth.
Climate has a profound effect on the types of plants that will grow in a particular ecosystem. In fact, climate affects the type of plant life to the extent that ecologists can often determine the climate of a particular region just by looking at what types of plants grow there.
From sea level to timberline and beyond, plant life is influenced by altitude. As the altitude increases, climate changes. The air becomes colder and drier, affecting plant life accordingly. Though other factors are contributors, directly or indirectly, altitude plays a part in the development and survival of all plant life.
You've heard that plants respond to music by growing fuller, taller, faster or more robust. Many people believe certain types of music have a positive effect on plant growth, and that you should play soothing or classical music for your plants. It sounds reasonable in theory, but in practice, music doesn't influence plant growth. You may have read that there's scientific evidence to support this idea. However, it's a myth based on the conclusions of a music student rather than a scientist.
It's an often debated subject: do plants benefit from a gardener playing music to them? Evidence to date suggests that plants do respond in growth to the stimuli of voice and music.
Plants need water to survive. But some fluids that contain water are harmful to plants despite being fine for human consumption. These include milk, juice and coffee with cream. All of these drinks can stop plants from absorbing water and soil nutrients due to their high. Conversely, many organic "teas" that plants thrive on would be repulsive and dangerous for people to drink.
Plants and humans respond to music in similar ways. In 1973, Dorothy Retallack conducted experiments at the Colorado Woman's College in Denver. She experimented on the same plant variety and subjected them to tones and music in three different chambers, recording her daily findings.
The use of classical music can cause plants to grow healthier and faster, according to a number of experiments that have combined music and growing. Although scientists are still trying to determine how sound waves affect plants, experiments have yielded positive results.
No junior high science fair would be complete without the obligatory experiment exploring music's effect on plants. The presumed connection between melody and flora even resulted in a 1970 album entitled "Music to Grow Plants By." Needless to say, the record didn't hit the Top 40, but some scientists have performed credible research on the subject over the years. Since the 1950s, researchers have wondered how, or if, exposure to music affects plant germination, growth, reproduction and genetics.
While plants have no ears, they respond positively to music. This was first confirmed in 1973, when a researcher at the Colorado Woman's College used the institution's biotronic control chambers to study the effect of music on plants. What she discovered has subsequently been tested thousands of times over by children of all ages in science projects.
The art of the luthier and woodwind maker typically begins deep in a forest. Although gourds and nuts indigenous to all areas of the world are used to make small percussion shakers, the plants most often used to construct musical instruments are trees, many of which are beautiful, rare and endangered.
While no scientific study has explained any correlation between music and plants growth, several experiments have indicated that plants respond to musical stimuli. Different types of music appear to affect plants in different ways.
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.
There have been many experiments on the effects of music on plant growth. According to a study done by Yu-Chuan Qin, Won-Chu Lee, Young-Cheol Choi and Tae-Wan Kim in 2002, plants that have "green music" played around them grow taller. "Green music" is a combination of classical music and nature sounds, such as wind, ocean waves, rain, birds, insects and other animals.
Music can be used to incite and inhibit plant growth, depending on the type of music that is played. Melodies have also been shown to soothe animals that are frightened or cause animals to kill. Therefore, choosing music that benefits your plants and animals might help you grow better plants and have calmer pets.
The idea that plant growth is affected by different types of music has been popular for a long time. Controlled scientific studies have not been able to prove any difference in plant growth when different types of music are played.
Several experiments have been done to see how plants react to music, and often it is classical music that seems to yield the most positive results. In 1973, Dorothy Retallack published a book titled, "The Sound of Music and Plants." In her experiments, Retallack subjected different groups of plants to various types of music and sounds. In her experiments, she found that soothing music resulted in healthier plants and better growth, whereas music that was more lively and percussive in nature turned the plants away from the speakers. For instance, orchestral renditions of rock songs caused the plants to move…
People are always experimenting with ways to encourage their plants to grow larger and produce more. This is not a new phenomenon. Our ancestors who first began to experiment with cultivating plants probably tried to do the very same thing. After all, they were planting food for their survival. Along with experimenting with various kinds of compost that includes the excrement of bats and worms, growers have experimented with the effect of music on plants. Two of the most notable experiments in this were conducted by the Discovery show Mythbusters and a woman named Dorothy Retallack. While the experiment conducted…
