Researchers have demonstrated that plants respond to acoustic energy in profound ways that not only influence their overall health, but also increase the rate of growth and size of the plant. Through years of research and a stroke of spiritual insight, Dan Carlson determined the combination of frequencies found between 3,000 to 5,000 kHz causes the stomata of plants to open and absorb nutrients more efficiently. Because the ability and desire of the plant to take up nutrition was altered due to its enhanced capability, it took 15 years to develop a corresponding foliar spray designed specifically for use with the sound frequencies Carlson called Sonic Bloom. His insight has been used by countless farmers and even resulted in growing the largest indoor plant on record according to the Guinness Book. Purple Passion plants normally grow about 18 inches and live 18 months. When treated with the Sonic Bloom process, Carlson’s plant grew to 1,300 feet and was still alive 25 years later. Sonic Bloom has been chronicled in the book Secrets of the Soil and is now available for use from industry wholesalers, so let the experiments begin!
Another pioneer in the realm of acoustic gardening is Joel Sternheimer. He studied elementary particle physics at Princeton and through his studies of scale resonance was inspired to investigate the vibrational frequencies of amino acids. The ribosome is the factory of the cell; it catalyzes the creation of proteins from a variety of 20 amino acids depending on the needs of the cell and the corresponding organism. During this process of translation in the ribosome, the amino acids are considerably slowed, allowing researchers to measure the specific frequency of each one as a “note.” When the sequence of a certain protein is recognized, each amino acid (note) can be transcribed into a sequence, or melody. When Sternheiner successfully replicated the correct melodies for the selected proteins he noticed that it encouraged the production of the corresponding protein and stimulated growth. After all, amino acids are critical to life. Sternheiner has filed for several patents based on his work and claims that tomatoes exposed to his melodies grew 2.5 times as large as those that were untreated.
In the landmark book The Secret Life of Plants (1973) the research of Dorothy Retallack is investigated. In order to complete her music degree she chose to experiment with plants using different types of music as a laboratory experiment. Amazingly, through rigorous trial and error she determined that plants prefer classical music - such as Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert - over rock and roll, such as Zeppelin and Hendrix. Oddly, Jazz recordings from artists such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong resulted in roughly half of the plants being experimented on leaning towards the speaker and half leaning away. Through more experimentation Retallack concluded that it was not the genre of music having the influence, but the range of instruments and resonance used. She determined that the percussion frequencies of music were harmful to plants, resulting in as little as 1⁄4 the root growth of control plants and in some cases death. It is research such as this that forces us to consider the subtle senses of plants. Specimens such as Mimosa pudica and the Venus Fly Trap are sensitive to touch, so is it not plausible that plants can also listen?
In 2007 South Korean scientist Mi-Jeong Jeong claimed playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to rice plants encouraged quicker growth and blossoms to bloom earlier. The researchers claim they have identified plant genes that can “hear,” potentially allowing farmers to switch specific plant genes on and off with enormous repercussions. The results showed that sounds at specific frequencies – 125 hertz and 250 hertz - made genes rbcS and Ald more active, whereas sound waves at 50 hertz made them less active. Because both are known to respond to light, they repeated the experiments in the dark and concluded definitively that the sound was causing the effect. The researchers speculated that the production of chemicals that lead to the genetic changes they observed could be harnessed to activate other specific genes that could trigger the enhanced flowering of crops.
