Photo: John and Suzanne’s Mom.
Do you talk to your houseplants? Do you sing to them?
Today’s story suggests that it’s no joke. Music can be the plant “food of love,” so play on.
Kate Morgan at the Washington Post reported the phenomenon.
“Zak Peters’s business began when he realized that the cannabis plants in his Massachusetts basement seemed to grow better when he played music for them. ‘I don’t know why, but they loved Radiohead so much,’ he says. …
“The flora seemed like an enthusiastic audience, so at the start of the pandemic, when most live music performances were canceled and venues closed, Peters started inviting local bands to play to the plants. …
“When Peters relocated to Austin in 2021, the idea grew. Bands and venues across the city have hired his company, Play to the Plants, to cover stages with houseplants of all shapes and sizes. It’s about more than just decoration, he says.
“ ‘People just love the idea of playing to the plants,’ Peters says. ‘It’s calming and it just makes the bands feel good.’ It also makes the plants feel good, at least in Peters’s estimation. ‘We’ve never had a plant die,’ he says. ‘If anything, they’ve had better growth.’
“Even if you’re not toting your plants along to concerts, there may be some benefit to exposing them to music. A number of streaming services now offer curated playlists and channels aimed at improving plant growth, and while scientists can’t say for sure whether it works, it probably can’t hurt.
“Plants do respond to sound. That much, at least, is settled science. Researchers have found that plants feel vibrations and react to them. When Heidi Appel, a chemical ecologist and professor of biology at the University of Houston, and her colleague, Rex Cocroft of the University of Missouri, replicated the sound of a caterpillar chewing, plants sensed those vibrations and increased their chemical defenses. They concluded it was proof that plants respond directly to noises.
“In fact, Appel says, plants (and all living things) are constantly surrounded by sound waves and vibrations. Whether we’re aware of it or not, she says, we all live in a vibroscape, an atmosphere of natural vibrations that humans may not even notice. ‘Plants are so responsive to everything in the environment,’ she says. ‘So what sounds are important to plants? Raindrops, probably. And pollinators, perhaps herbivores.’ …
“One study found that when beach evening-primrose flowers were exposed to the sound of a flying insect, they produced sweeter nectar almost immediately. …
“Research from the past few years suggests plants will lean toward sounds played at certain frequencies, and in a recent study, Japanese scientists exposed some arugula plants to Jimi Hendrix and others to Mozart. While the study didn’t look at which might be ‘better’ for the plants, it did find that the cellular structure of the plants was different depending on which music had been played to them. …
“Regardless of the science behind it, there’s plenty of music being made for plants. Several major streaming services have launched dedicated plant channels, and they all have different vibes, so choosing the right fit might depend a lot on your plants’ personalities. SiriusXM’s Music for Plants channel is heavy on the strings-driven instrumentals, for romantic plants that appreciate a sweeping fantasy film score or an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. On Apple Music, artists including Hortus Botanist and Audioponics offer ambient synthesizer grooves for plants that just want to, like, chill, you know?
“And then there’s Spotify’s Hardcore Gardening.
“Last year, the streaming service partnered with Chris Beardshaw, a Britain-based horticulturalist and broadcaster who oversaw a study in which plants exposed to hardcore punk grew to be ‘much more robust’ compared to plants grown in silence or exposed to classical music. The plants that were ‘bombarded’ by hardcore, he says, ‘were the shortest but the stockiest and most resilient, with the least incidence of pests or disease.’
“In other words, if you want to grow the toughest plants in the mosh pit, toss on the playlist, which kicks off with Black Flag and keeps up the energy with songs from Bane, Have Heart and all the other loudest bands you can think of.”
More at the Washington Post via MSN, here. No paywall.
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