How Plants Respond to Music.

Originally Posted by smartguy345

So i did a breif research on RIU on this and nothing came up. Be nice to know if anyone did any side test comparison. I always wondered if music in the grow room would help these ladies thrive? Not only that but help creat background noise to cover any humming sound any equipment may generate.

Anyone care to input on this method? I am planing on picking up a portable radio and set it to a classical station.

Here is some info I gathered from the INTERNET:

Plants Respond to Music

Did you know that your plants respond to music the same as human beings do? It has been proven scientifically through many experiments that plants thrive on music, though there are some who do not agree with the theory. Gardeners, however, have no doubt that fading flowers get a new lease of life by music and flowers blossom in their fullest glory listening to music. In 1973, Dorothy Retallack's book The Sound of Music and Plants based on scientific experiments created ripples.

Retallack began her experiment at the Colorado Women's College in Denver. Using three separate laboratories containing the same species of plants, Retallack began her experiment. Piping in different types of music to each facility, she recorded the daily growth of each plant. The results were quite surprising. The plants in the laboratory where music was played daily for three hours a day grew twice as large and became twice as healthy as those in a music-free environment. On the other extreme, plants in the laboratory where music was played for eight hours a day died within two weeks of the start of the experiment.

Dorothy Retallack tried experimenting with different types of music. She played rock to one group of plants and, soothing music to another. The group that heard rock turned out to be sickly and small whereas the other group grew large and healthy. What's more surprising is that the group of plants listening to the soothing music grew bending towards the radio just as they bend towards the sunlight.

This experiment encouraged many individuals and organizations to exercise the act of playing music to plants. These connoisseurs of music warn you about the sort of music that you play. The plants will grow better if you play soft soothing music of old era instead of loud rock music of Gen X.
The noisy rock music will only make the plants grow feeble and sick. Preferably, play Mozart, Bach, or Beethoven to make your plant grow better. Another important point that we can pick up from Retallack's experiments is the duration of music. If you are keen on playing music to your plants, keep the time limit to be about three hour. This will make the plants grow healthy and properly. An overdose of music can seriously destroy the plants.

Although music is not an absolutely proven factor in plant development, several studies, along with Dorothy Retallack's groundbreaking series of experiments, have aided the musical development theory. If you are interested in exploring this option with your own garden, consult The Sound of Music and Plants or other resources to ensure you expose your plants to the optimal type of music for the
appropriate amount of time.

I remember the Mythbusters experiment that showed plants grow better when you talk to them, regardless of what you say to them though, and as for music, Rock is the way to go

And btw, the plants that got cussed at and insulted grew better than the ones on classical music IIRC


Apparently, the conclusions collide.

By my recollection, Mythbusters grew peas in a greenhouse, with music\speech delivered via a stereo, that i think was always on, but i`m not 100% of it. Apparently, this chick did an indoor grow

Good to get more input on this.. I was thinking keeping the radio on 24/7 but there saying it kill the plants.. oh decisons decisons.. I dont even know if its possible to keep my radio on a timer.

I don't think there is any good evidence for either but I'm more inclined to think human talking might make a difference over a radio. Likewise, I doubt that eitherone can do any harm. Growing is full of superstitions.

OK. Heres how this music stuff works my friend. From what ive heard as far as music goes, Classical and Rock music work the best. Also, the perfect number for music and plants is 3. Play more than 3 hours and your plant may react negativelely. But i myself play 3 hours of Phish for my plants and they seem to be loving it...(until this one time my buddy accidentally put Kanye in my player and killed my plants)

i would think that humans talking would be more beneficial due to the co2 we breath out.. thats what plants breath in.. makes sense we would boost them talking to them.. although i dont know if the little bit of talking and co2 boost that they would get from us would be that beneficial to make a difference...

i really just think the sound waves stimulate the plants more than anything.. not the sounds itself... im sure you could play a recording of loony tunes and get the same results as actual music.. its the stimulation that does the work from the sound waves...

imagine its like this.. if you take an animal.. put it in a cage.. feed it.. water it... let it out.. but NEVER give it any other stimulation than that you'll have one weak animal.. even if it isnt weak weak, it will still not be as strong as it would have been had it got stimulation from people and other animals.. if that makes sense..

i think the same holds true for any "live" thing.. without some sort of stimulation things never grow to their fullest.. outside plants have all kind of audio stimulants that produce sound waves they absorb (since plants cant actually hear like we do).. indoors tho its not always true.. they are stuck in rooms where typically the only noise is the hum of fans and such.. it would make sense in some round about way that the music would act as a some sort of stimuli and the plant would grow more from it...

now whether the is scientifically true or can be proven is what im not sure of..

yes, the mythbusters did it and proved it on their show.. but unless all the plants they grew were from clones then its not really a fair comparison since their genetics would have been different.. think about when you grow 2 of the same strains and they grow differently.. unless they are from the same mother and contain the same phenos then its somewhat a false answer they got...

I read that same article (and a few more on the same topic) a few years ago and was totally inspired to play a few hours of music daily in my garden. I mostly played sonatas by bach and Perpetual Motion by Bela Fleck--tho i didn't do a side by side comparison--they seemed to really thrive.

From what I understand, the roots (which are extremely sensitive) feel the vibrations----and supposedly that is how plants and trees essentially "communicate" w one another in nature. I believe it. The music had an extremely positive effect on me as well--which I'm sure also "vibed" to my girls--so yeah--you can't go wrong w GOOD COMPLEX and POSITIVE music (positive not in the lyrics necessarily--but in the feelings or vibes it will evoke from it's audience.)

I'm glad to see someone wote about this

I also believe what simsponsampson420 said about the CO2--we do omit quite a bit when we breathe out--but even more when we talk and EVEN MORE THAN THAT when we sing--so, next time you are in your garden (presumably naked ), SING. Your fucking lungs out.

they'll be your biggest fans

I wonder if it's the wavelength of the music that helps it. Plants gather E and photosynthesize using the visual spectrum of waves, but go at an even lower wavelength and you get the audible spectrum, we use different wavelengths in the visual spectrum for different stages of growth. I wonder if different music, producing different wavelengths, in different stages of growth would be better than others. More research needs to be done on this for sure.