 While playing music or talking to your plants may sound silly, experts say it’s not. Treating your plants with loving care, maintaining a positive attitude, speaking kindly, and playing gentle music will actually do wonders for your plants growth!
In a study performed by the Royal Horticultural Society, researchers discovered that talking to your plants really can help them grow faster. Interestingly, they also found that plants grow faster to the sound of a female voice than to the sound of a male voice. They said that they are unsure why the female voice worked better, but guessed that it could be related to women's greater range of pitch or tone that affects the sound waves that hit the plant. Dr. Dominque Hes of the University of Melbourne believes the greater growth in plants who listen to music is because of the energy produced by some kinds of music’s sound waves. He says that music between 115Hz and 250Hz is best for plant growth since the vibrations they emit are similar to those found in nature. Dr. Hes feels that classical music and jazz would be the ideal choices for stimulating plant growth. And, he adds that plants should only be exposed to a music for a maximum of three hours a day. Dr Dominique Hes said, “Smithsonian and Nasa show that mild vibrations increase growth in plants while harsher, stronger vibrations have a negative effect,” Dr Hes explains. “The vibrations improve communication and photosynthesis, which improves growth and the ability to fight infection. You could say the plants are happy!” Devendra Vanol of India’s Institute of Integrated Study and Research in Biotechnology and Allied Sciences confirms that music can promote plant growth, and she says that plants can tell the difference between certain sounds from one another, specifically whether it’s music or just noise. (Pistil Nursery) One of the first to study this subject in depth was Dr. TC Singh, an Indian botanist who spearheaded the Department of Botany at India’s University of Annamalai. Back in the 1960s, he conducted experiments with plants and music. He showed over and over that plant yeilds were boosted from 25% to 60%! Interestingly, Dr. Singh also found that music also had an impact on seeds. The seeds which were exposed to music grew leafier and taller that those seeds which were not exposed to music. Dr. Singh’s opinion was that violins had the biggest impact on the growth of plants. Years later, in 2007, a Canadian engineer, Eugene Canby, tried to repeat Dr. Singh’s experiments. He played Bach’s violin sonata throughout his wheat fields, and found an incredible 66% yield increase. IKEA conducted their own experiment on plant growth and also as a bullying experiment. The DIY furniture giant set up two identical IKEA plants in a school, and for 30 days invited students to compliment one plant and bully the other. After 30 days, the plant that received compliments was healthy and thriving, while its insult-riddled counterpart was wilted and noticeably droopy. Comments are closed.
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