New Research Says Playing Classical Music Can Actually Make Your Plants Grow Better
Can plants listen to sounds the way humans can? If yes, then how? Unlike a starburst or a bumblebee, a rose doesn’t have ears. Sunflowers don't vibe to Drake or Eminem. A cabbage patch doesn’t start hooting and screaming when someone plays an electric guitar. A chilli pepper doesn’t groove to Katy Perry's music. Or maybe they do. Maybe we humans didn’t pay enough attention. As part of a study published in the journal Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, a team of Oxford researchers discovered that despite being earless, plants can detect sounds, particularly the hypnotic melody of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.
The objective of this study was to examine the growth patterns and behaviors of plants when coming in contact with different forms of music, ranging from rock-n-roll to classical. The team split a plant called bok choy (Brassica rapa) into three groups and exposed each cluster to different musical conditions over the next six weeks. Each musical piece was played in two-hour bursts. While the results in all plants were noteworthy for scientific research, the group that listened to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos surprised the researchers with an unexpected pattern of growth and weight.
When drenched in the ornate cross-rhythms of this grosso melody, this cluster of bok choy showed the highest root level volume, measuring 90 cubic centimetres; the plants grown in silence reached 77 cubic centimeters, and those grown alongside instrumental rock reached just 30 cubic centimetres, per Classic FM. While the exact reason for this reaction is still unclear, researchers believe that it could be a combination of sound frequencies, music tempo, and the instruments that trigger either inhibiting or stimulating tendencies in the plants. From the density of leaves to their height and weight, the plants depicted unthinkable growth.
Charles Spence, a co-author and professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, shared with Classic FM, “Playing music to plants is not as crazy as it may sound at first. Classical music may affect plant growth because plants are attuned to vibrations, such as the vibrations of running water in soil, and they react to them biologically. Meanwhile, the different frequencies in rock music may fall outside the sonic range, which boosts plant growth.”
However, this doesn’t permit you to blast the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi at full volume on your speaker if your mint plant hasn't shown any signs of growth. In that case, whether or not your flowering bed turns a little lush, you’ll certainly receive an angry note from your neighbor. “Despite the promise around the use of classical music to help stimulate plant growth, further studies are undoubtedly still needed before any firm conclusions regarding the potential benefits of exposing plants to an acoustic stimulus can be drawn,” the researchers noted in the study.
The study is a clue for you. The next time you visit the supermarket to buy those trowels, soils, and seed-starting mixes for planting new seedlings, don’t forget to add a DVD of Bach to your list. And once you’re done digging the holes, planting the seeds, and watering the saplings, dust off that old music player and slip the DVD inside. And if you find your tomato plant ballooned up or stretched the following day, don’t be surprised. It’s not your water or soil, it’s actually Bach!
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