Plants and music – Help ’em grow!

Wanna hear a secret? Studies show that the music you play at home might have an effect on how your plants grow. Turns out our indoor friends are a little more comprehensive and sensitive than we might think! Are you a metal fan that’s blasting loud bangers every day? Do you listen to smoooooth jazz jams or just ambient throughout your day? Let’s see what kind of effect you might have on your green buddies and what they would like us to do:

Do plants have ears?

No they don’t, but a study led by the University of Western Australia shows that plants have far more complex and developed senses than we thought with the ability to detect and respond to sounds to find water, and ultimately survive. In the study “Tuned in: plant roots use sound to locate water” published in Oecologia, UWA researchers found that plants can sense sound vibrations from running water moving through pipes or in the soil, to help their roots move towards the source of water. The study also revealed that plants do not like certain noises and will move away from particular sounds. A study conducted in 1973 found that plants exposed to the note F for 8 hours at a time died in two weeks. At the same time, plants that were exposed to sound only three hours at a time were healthier than plants that grew in total silence.  Let’s see what we can do to boost the growth and well being of our indoor greens!

Plants dig jazz

Plants are like people with big glasses, a huge library and a tweed suit with a polo shirt underneath. If you treat them as such, they will do rather well. Ok, maybe you shouldn’t feed them dry sherry every night, but you get the stereotype. Plants have a tendency of enjoying classical music and jazz and turning their leaves and roots towards the source of sound. Try playing some classics to your plants. They might enjoy them even more than you do!

Plants are excellent listeners

Do you know someone who has a knack of hearing stuff in music that other people don’t seem to notice? You should also ask your plant for some deep musical info! They tend to thrive while listening to sounds in the frequencies between 115Hz-250Hz as the vibrations emitted by such music emulate similar sounds in nature. These sounds can make the stomata on plants to stay open for longer periods (the lungs of the plant), which makes them breath deeper resulting in accelerated growth! You should also tell your troubles to your plant. Or just talk and encourage the plant! Studies show, that talking to your plant, who’s an excellent listener by the way, makes it grow stronger and helps it relax! So go on, give them a pep-talk. No one’s going to know..

Plants need rest too

Like our ears, plants don’t like loud and continuous noises. While it’s great for a plant to hear music, it shouldn’t be through the day. A plant has an attention span of three hours (just like your typical music listener) and after that, you should give them some time to rest and chill.

Music for plants

Music makers worldwide have made songs about plants for years. I bet, that ever since there has been music, there has been music about plants. But what about music for plants? We got you! Check out this playlist that suits the everyday jams your plants should listen to!

If you’re into synth music, check out Mort Garson’s Mother Earths Plantasia! This album is dedicated to plants and only plants. Me and my Avocado-tree enjoy it very much!

Are you going to try the methods here? Let us know how it went!

Full time songwriter and performing artist from Finland. Finlands biggest Yanni- fan.

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