The kingdom plants it is much more refined than most of us realize. Plants have their own sophisticated form of communication –a tree language based on chemical codes–. But in addition, its high sensitivity has been verified, for example, to perceive sound waves and, in many cases, what they express.
Now it is known, for example, that the vibrations produced by the bites of the worms on their leaves are the ones that activate your defense chemicals. In other words, for plants, sound waves from bites express danger.
And although disbelief usually distances us from these findings, which border precisely on the incredible, It is true that plants are not only stimulated by sound but actually enjoy more complex and expressive forms of sound, such as those in music.
A plant understands Mozart better than many of us. He knows how to decipher his frequencies and is sensitive to what they express.
As has been verified in various studies, music promotes faster and healthier growth in plants. The Indian Botanologist Jagadish Chandra Bose He was a forerunner of these studies, and found that the sensitivity of plants is as wide as ours. Elements like light, cold, heat and noise affect them in ways they had not imagined before the investigations of this passionate botanologist.
Dorothy Retallack, an organist and mezzo-soprano and author of the book The sound of music and plants, also studied the effect of music on plants. Retallack became interested in the subject from his passion for music and from an article about farmer George Smith, who played music for his cornfields and talked to them, causing them to develop more foliage, and even increased the amount of crops they generated.
Playing music for plants could be part of the sustainable agriculture of the future.
Therefore, in 1973 Retallack tested the effect of different musical notes on plantsexposing them to them for 8 hours in a total, intermittent or non-existent way, as well as to different musical genres.
The non-stop notes deteriorated the plants to the point that they died, while intermittently played notes kept them healthy.
In other experiments he used music recordings rock and other denser or heavier genres –especially in percussion–, which caused the plants to grow sad and begin to lean to death. For his part, Bach’s classical music and Indian music played on the sitar and tabla had stimulating effects on his growthwhich was also reflected in his appearance.
Plants even expressed their likes or dislikes of music with their bodies: when they liked the music, they leaned into the speakers; when not, they tried to get out of their sound radius.
According to Retallack’s subsequent experiments, music country has a neutral effect on plants, while the jazz they seem to like it.
Undoubtedly one can therefore speak of a enjoyment of music by plants, because not all types of music have the same effect on them, which implies a certain degree of sensitivity to differentiate between one and the other.
It is not, of course, an enjoyment that starts from aesthetic paradigms, but from something that goes unnoticed by us: the effect of vibrations or frequencies. That is what, apparently, plants are able to distinguish and «enjoy» or «hate».
What music to play in your house, for your delight and that of your plants?
Although they exist some delicious compositions made especially for plants, you can also opt for music from your own repertoire. Because you don’t really need special music, because the frequency range that stimulates the plants is quite wide, and it goes of the 125 to 5000 Hz. The common frequency in Mozart’s music, for example, is of 432Hz to 532Hz.
So far, there are no guides on what genres of music to play to the plants (let alone a guide on their favorite bands). But you yourself can experiment with what is already known: that plants like classical music, the jazz and the music of India.
Here are some recommendations for you to experiment with your plants and enjoy these great albums with them:
Main image and GIFs: Maria Chimishkyan
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