serenading your plants
• AS MEASURED on their second day after fully opening,
the average blossom size was 2.13 in. for those exposed
to Vedic chants, 2.12 in. for those exposed to Indian
classical music, 1.92 in. for those exposed to silence,
1.85 in. for those exposed to Western classical music,
and 1.46 in. for those exposed to rock music.
Additionally, the researchers in this study noted the
plants that were exposed to the chants grew towards the
music, while the ones exposed to rock tended to grow away
from the music source. The ones that were exposed to rock
music also developed thorns first and had the highest
average amount of thorns compared to the other groups.
A separate two-year Egyptian study, published in 2017
in the Life Science Journal, looked at growth rates, oil
production, and pigment variations on salvia plants that
were exposed to Western classical, jazz, and silence.
The researchers also found that the type of music a
plant is exposed to makes a big difference in the data.
They looked at total plant height, number of branches
per plant, fresh and dry herb weights, percentage of oil
and oil yields per plant, and the amounts of total
chlorophyll and carotenoids in each plant. With
very little exception, the plants exposed to the
classical music outgrew and outyielded those
exposed to jazz or those that grew in silence.
Here are their observations:
• THE PLANTS exposed to classical music
had the most amount of vegetative
growth in both years of the study.
Year one averages were
14.96 in. compared to
14.17 in. for those in silence
and 13.39 in. for those
exposed to jazz.
“
THE ONES
THAT WERE
EXPOSED to rock
music also developed
thorns first and had the
highest average amount
of thorns compared to
the other groups.”
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Year two followed suit, with the ones listening to classical
music reaching an average of 15.31 in., while the ones
exposed to silence and jazz music reached only 14.57 in.
and 13.9 in., respectively.
• THE PLANTS exposed to classical music also had the
highest average number of branches per plant over both
years of the study. They averaged 33 branches per plant
in year one and 34 in year two. Plants exposed to silence
averaged 30.6 and 31 branches per plant over years
one and two, respectively. Plants exposed to jazz music
averaged 27 branches in year one and 28 branches
during year two.