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.

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