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[Roze]

Ola amigos!

It's proved that plants enjoy music  (Dorothy Retallack in the book" The Sound of Music and Plants"-1973)
Recent experiments proved that classical and jazz helps them grow stronger and faster, rock makes the opposite and rap kill them!

Earlier in the 50's, Dr. T. C. Singh,  of the department of botany at Annamalai University, found that the aquatic plant hydrilla reacted positively to the violin and flute.. He said that:

"Plants can grow and become healthier just because one who takes care of them prefer certain songs or believe that music affects the plant and as a result, take better care of them."

My question is: does anyone really try it or this experiences are not reliable and should be considered as "pseudo-science" ?

And now a silly question... do you think  music can help seeds to germinate as well?!?

Thank you for reading 

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[TBM]

There was an entire episode of Mythbusters a couple years back that tested exactly that, if I recall correctly they were testing if simply talking to plants helped with growth, they then expanded it to include music as well. To test I believe they grew some type of green beans in several small greenhouses. One was a control group without any sounds at all. For the experiment groups one had a constant loop of baby talking to the plants, one had a constant loop of insults to the plants, one had a constant loop of classical music, and the final experiment group had a loop of metal music playing.

Results were quite conclusive, the control grew the least, while the one playing heavy death metal grew the most robust, their results showed that it didn't appear to matter what was said to the plants as long as there was sounds growth was improved.

To answer your question: I think that you may be onto something, why not make an experiment to see if sound helps germination?

Edit: It is in Mythbusters' 2004 season episode 23, they concluded their experiment as Plausible

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[Greentoe]

 Here's a quote from mythbusterresults.com

Talking helps plants grow.
PLAUSIBLE
Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the Mythbusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all.

No mention of rap music, but I doubt it would kill plants. After hearing the "intense deth metal" made them grow best, my guess is it has to do with vibrations more so than the style of music. I'd imagine high tempo electronic music would have the same effect.

I'm also curious, if it is the vibration from the sounds causing this effect, if simply hooking a speaker to a frequency generator could cause the same effect and if certain frequencies might promote better growth (similar to how different light frequencies effect plants differently). Seems like more research into this stuff needs to be done.

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[Sunshine]

I agree with greentoe. I think that the level of vibrations would strengthen the plant depending on intensity, just as wind strengthens stems. I think it would be cool to test out different frequencies and multiple combinations of frequencies on the plants. I remember reading somewhere, or maybe it was on a tv show, where grape farmers would play music to their grape vines. They seemed pretty adamant that it had a positive effect.

I've played sounds of nature to my plants before such as rain and waterfall sounds with birds chirping. I didn't really notice an effect. Then again, I wasn't really looking for one.

[Roze]

All this prove that plants react to the environment in which they live, we underestimate they power and sometimes we forget that they are living beings with free will!

I'll try an simple experiment: put one in a window, with constant noise from outside and others in a location with absolute silence to see the result..

For sure there are differences but we are so busy with our lives that not notice these small magical moments that make it worthwhile to live among them!

Maybe the future will prove that our own state of mind also influences their development ... maybe the flowers of depressed people do not have much colour or smell, and happy people have much cheerful flowers...I believe that it is possible!

[TBM]

No mention of rap music, but I doubt it would kill plants. After hearing the "intense deth metal" made them grow best, my guess is it has to do with vibrations more so than the style of music. I'd imagine high tempo electronic music would have the same effect.

I'm also curious, if it is the vibration from the sounds causing this effect, if simply hooking a speaker to a frequency generator could cause the same effect and if certain frequencies might promote better growth (similar to how different light frequencies effect plants differently). Seems like more research into this stuff needs to be done.

You might be onto something with the vibrations being potentially more effective than sounds, I wonder if having your plants on a vibration table would make them grow stronger... only question would be what sort of frequencies/patterns would work best? The metal they were playing had a lot of heavy bass drumming so maybe trying to mimic that with a vibration table would work? Obviously it wouldn't be vibrating too intensely, wouldn't want your plants to shake themselves off the table

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[New Wisdom]

Now this would be an interesting experiment! 

[ONandONandON]

Check out the dancing plant Codariocalyx motorius (Desmodium gyrans)
Also, this is a great documentary on the subject http://www.sprword.com/videos/secretlifeofplants/Â

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[Sunshine]

Nice vid. Mine is finally at the stage where it does that. Are those your plants?

[ONandONandON]

Hah, you might think so from that music playing, but no i wish!
That is so awe+=sum though, and definitely on my list of todo.

I just found out about it not so long ago. It has some medicinal properties i think.....
HOLY MOLY SUNSHINE !! This plant just shot up to the top of my todo list, wow lol....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codariocalyx_motorius

[Sunshine]

Be careful when discussing the effects of plants. Particularly plants which contain illegal substances.

Thanks for the link. I did not know it contained anything interesting. I thought it was just a cool moving plant.

[Roze]

Great one!

Thanks for posting it, is always nice to see plants dancing a great song