Music for Plants? You Must be Joking....

Music for Your Plants Album Music For Your Plants Album Cover

We’ve all heard that old chestnut that if you talk to plants it will help them grow (I’m sure we’ve all secretly tried it just once or twice), although not sure how true it really is. However whilst this old favourite is known by every (wo)man and his/her dog, perhaps a lesser known tidbit, is the one about plants growing quicker if you play them classical music! “What!” I hear you exclaim, yes that’s exactly what I thought when I first read about it.

Apparently scientists have researched into the effects that music, Classical music in particular, have on plant growth and have concurred that the vibrations of sound waves are is thought to help plants grow by stimulating their production of protein.

“Is it just Classical music?” No, but apparently it is Classical music that has the greatest effect on growth rates. Dr. Singh who is head of Botany at Annamalai University in India studied how plants reacted to different types of music. He found that when listening to Classical and Baroque music the plants grew 72% more leaves than when they were ‘listening’ to rock music. On the other hand, the plants exposed to Rock music grew abnormally tall and died in 2 weeks.

But not everyone is convinced about the effects that music has on plant growth rates. Some suggest it is not the case that the music directly affects the plants, but the plant carers and this in some way influences the plant growth. Hmmm I for one am still not convinced, but it’s certainly an intriguing idea to imagine the two are somehow linked together.

Do you fancy putting it to the test? Why not try playing your tree or plant gift a selection of Classical greats and see how you get on (in face there has actually been an album created for this very purpose, called “music for plants” have a search for it). Leave us a comment on this blog, or our Facebook wall to inform us of your progress or even better send us in a video of your tree boogie hehe.