Does Music Affect Plant Growth?
Ok, ok, hear us out.
We’ve all been in our homes a lot more than usual this spring, and that got us wondering...do the sounds around our plants influence them?
If they’re hearing the music we play to dance around to in the morning, then the background sounds on our Netflix shows at night and everything in-between...could that help them grow more than they would in a silent room?
And if our plants do grow better with music playing...what kind of music do they like? Should we play them Beyonce or Beethoven?
It’s Gemini Season, after all...so we’ve done some investigating! Here’s what we found:
Fact or myth? We explored the science (or lack thereof) behind playing music to plants to help them grow.
It might not surprise you that this idea originated in the 1970s, the heyday of new age thinking and connecting with Mother Earth. An article called “The Secret Life of Plants” was published in 1973 and the writers, citing several scientific studies, claimed that not only does music help plants, but that plants have a level of consciousness and can respond to people!
Another study from the 1970’s looked at specific music genres and had some interesting results. When classical and jazz music was played, the plants not only grew, but grew towards the speakers! But when rock music was played, the plants grew away from the music and showed similar signs to overwatering.
The hypothesis even made it onto the show Mythbusters.
They did a little experiment of their own back in 2004 and seemed to prove that some amount of sound will improve a plant’s growth. They used seven different greenhouses, with a completely silent greenhouse as the control, and all of the greenhouse’s plants grew...but the one without any noise at all came in last.
All of this research seems to point to the "mechanoreceptors" plants have that respond to pressure. In humans, mechanoreceptors in our ears detect and distinguish sound waves in the form of pressure as each wave hits the inside of our ears. So if plants have similar receptors, they too could respond to the changes in sound waves, from music to conversation!
With all of that to say, we’re confident that the increased sound in our homes lately can be doing nothing but helping all our plant friends.
Just be sure to also, you know, water them, and avoid these 5 common plant parent mistakes.
