Plants respond to sound waves and vibrations by causing plant cells to move, which leads to more nutrients. Ellis points to Dorothy Retallack, who wrote “The Sound of Music and Plants.” She discovered when exposed to soothing, “easy listening” music, plants leaned toward the speakers. Rock music stunted growth.
Plants can perceive light, scent, touch, wind, even gravity, and are able to respond to sounds, too. No, music will not help plants grow—even classical—but other audio cues can help plants survive and thrive in their habitats.
Plants thrive when they listen to music that sits between 115Hz and 250Hz, as the vibrations emitted by such music emulate similar sounds in nature. Plants don't like being exposed to music more than one to three hours per day. Jazz and classical music seems to be the music of choice for ultimate plant stimulation.
Because plant roots respond only to sound waves at frequencies which match waves emitted by the plants themselves, it is likely that plants can receive and transduce sound vibrations into signals to elicit behavioral modifications as a form of below ground communication.
Although communication through mycorrhizal networks and Volatile Organic Compounds has been known for a long time, acoustic perception and communication are somehow a final frontier of research. Perhaps surprisingly, plants not only respond to sound, they actually seem to emit sound as well.
From several years it has been demonstrated how plants can absorb and resonate specific sound frequencies19 and how sound waves can change the cell cycle of the plant. Sound waves vibrate plant leaves accelerating protoplasmic movement in cells.
The conductivity of a plant is largely related to how much water there is between the two sensors. So, as a plant is photosynthesizing and moving chloroplasts around, PlantWave is sensing these tiny shifts and graphing them in real time. If you graph shifts over time, you get a wave.
Rather, sound waves stimulate the plant's cells. When the cells are stimulated by the sound, nutrients are encouraged to move throughout the plant body, promoting new growth and strengthening their immune systems. Believe it or not, studies indicate that plants also seem have a specific taste in music!
In fact, years of evidence reveals that plants do respond well to music, specifically music that contains voices in the 115-250hz range (this is most likely a female voice). The music of choice is usually classical, or jazz.
The team found that the plants emitted sounds at a frequency of 40 to 80 kilohertz, and when condensed and translated into a frequency humans can hear, the noises were a bit similar to the pop of popcorn being made or bubble wrap bursting.
Your plants really dislike when you touch them, apparently. A new study out of the La Trobe Institute for Agriculture and Food has found that most plants are extremely sensitive to touch, and even a light touch can significantly stunt their growth, reports Phys.org.
It's True—You Really Should Talk to Your Plants. In a study performed by the Royal Horticultural Society, researchers discovered that talking to your plants really can help them grow faster. 1 They also found that plants grow faster to the sound of a female voice than to the sound of a male voice.
“But some research shows that speaking nicely to plants will support their growth, whereas yelling at them won't. Rather than the meaning of words, however, this may have more to do with vibrations and volume. Plants react favourably to low levels of vibrations, around 115-250hz being ideal.”
Plants can sense and react to more aspects of their environments than we can, and they maintain bustling social lives by communicating with each other above and below ground. They also interact with other species.
Sound is perceived as vibrations. There is no consistent scientific evidence that talking or singing to plants helps them grow better or produce more fruit. Some studies have shown an effect on plants from music or single tones, some haven't.
Coffee contains a lot of nitrogen, which not only kills off weeds and bacteria but can also help certain types of plants (a.k.a those that prefer more acidic soil) flourish. Plus, your daily cuppa also contains significant amounts of magnesium and potassium, both of which are key factors in plant growth and health.
You may play music for several hours a day, but finish by around 10 am to allow the plants to close their stomata during the heat of midday. If you want to apply foliar fertilizer while playing music, start the sound 30 minutes before fertilizing and stop it 2 hours after. Don't feed plants more than once per week.
A concentration of caffeine in excess of 0.1% has a negative effect on plant tissues, slowing down and stopping the formation of roots, shoot growth and causing tissue necrosis.
Cats' whiskers are sensitive to even the slightest of vibrations in the air. They also have a very well developed sense of hearing. Both of these factors could mean that your cat finds the music that you enjoy too loud or feels like it has too much bass.
When you sing or talk to your plant you are expelling carbon dioxide which the plant needs to absorb to allow it to go through the process of photosynthesis and grow. In turn, the plant releases oxygen back to you, which is both beneficial and important for your health.
Plants absorb sound
One way is through sound absorption. Plant parts such as stems, leaves, branches, wood, etc. absorb sound. Rough bark and thick, fleshy leaves are particularly effective at absorbing sound due to their dynamic surface area.
Some plants do worse in noisy areas, a study found, while others seem to do better, depending on how the community of creatures around them changes. Either way, the ripple effects can be far reaching and long lasting, especially for trees, which often take decades to grow from seedlings into adults.
It determined that plants can, indeed, make memories, and can display their memory recall though learned response. Better yet, they were able to learn quickly – in as little as one day. Lack of nervous system aside, the mimosa pudica, or “sensitive plant,” started displaying learned responses in as little as one day.
In March, a new study showed many different plant species make ultrasonic sounds to communicate stress. It's the latest evidence showing how plants “talk” with everything from predators to pollinators. This research has an important use.
Moving out the stale hot air and bringing in fresh air with a fan keeps your plants cool. It also delivers a steady supply of carbon dioxide, which plants breathe in through their leaves.