And, Edwarda dear, I have bad news for YOU:
Actually, it is very old bad news, based on research first published in 1973 (Dorothy Retallack: "The Sound of Music and Plants"). As summarized by an anti-rock-music crusader:
An intensive series of studies carried out by Dorothy Retallack of Denver, Colorado, demonstrated the effects of different kinds of music on a variety of household plants. The experiments were controlled under strict scientific conditions, and the plants were kept within large closed cabinets on wheels in which light, temperature and air were automatically regulated. Three hours a day of acid rock, played through a loudspeaker at the side of the cabinet, was found to stunt and damage squash plants, philodendrons and corn in under four weeks. Mrs. Retallack played the music of the two different Denver radio stations to two groups of petunias. The radio stations were KIMN (a rock station) and KLIR (a semiclassical station). The Denver Post reported:
'The petunias listening to KIMN refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms. By the end of the second week, the KIMN petunias were LEANING AWAY from the radio and showing very erratic growth. The petunia blooms hearing KLIR were all leaning TOWARD THE SOUND. Within a month all plants exposed to rock music DIED.
In another experiment, conducted over three weeks, Dorothy Retallack played the music of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge to one group of beans, squash (marrow), corn, morning glory and coleus; she also played contemporary avant-garde atonal music to a second group; and, as a control, played nothing to a third group.
Within ten days, the plants exposed to Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge were all LEANING AWAY FROM THE SPEAKER. After three weeks they were stunted and DYING. The beans exposed to the 'new music' leaned 15
degrees from the speaker and were found to have middle-sized roots. The plants left in silence had the longest roots and grew the highest. Further, it was discovered that plants to which placid, devotional music was played not only grew two inches taller than plants left in silence, but also leaned TOWARDS THE SPEAKER.
(Tame, David The Secret Power of Music, p. 142 - 144)
All the plants that were next to the rock music - LEANED AWAY FROM THE SPEAKERS - trying to get away from the music! And to show that it was not just the noise itself - the plants next to the classical music - LEANED TOWARD THE SPEAKERS - actually trying to get closer to the music.
In the end - ALL the plants next to the rock music - DIED!
av1611.org
I must say I don't think much of the plants' taste in music. It was not classical music that they liked, but semi-classical (ugh! dentists' music!) and placid devotional music ("Jesus Loves Me"??).
Here is a follower of Mrs. Retallack, trying to zero in on plants' taste in classical music, specifically. But note that his own prejudice against atonal composers is revealed in his misspelling of Schonberg's name (my computer will not do umlauts):
I spoke with Mrs. Retallack about her experiments a few years after her book was published, and at that time I began performing my own experiments with plants using a wood-frame and clear-plastic-covered structure that I had built in my back yard. For one month, I played three-hours-a-day of music from Arnold Shonberg's negative opera Moses and Aaron, and for another month I played three-hours-a-day of the positive music of Palestrina. The effects were clear. The plants subjected to Shonberg died. The plants that listened to Palestrina flourished.
dovesong.com
Interestingly enough, I could not turn up any references in the scientific literature when I ran on search on music & plants. But I did turn up a zillion elementary and secondary school projects on the subject, most of which appeared to be failed attempts to prove that rock music was, in fact, beneficial to plants.
There is an explanation for this. Forget about plants & music, guys. Apparently, it is all pseudo-science. This irate plant physiology professor, tired of answering schoolchildren's requests for help on their plant music-listening projects, was driven to post a long FAQ on the subject, in which he says, among other things:
Yes there are some quack "scientists" who have claimed that (in highly flawed experiments) there was some effect of music on plant growth...but no such claims have met the rigor demanded for publication in respected journals. Such projects are often labeled "pseudoscience" because they fail to explain the control of critical variables, nor do they specify replication levels, nor do they show actual data and the results of statistical testing.......If you are an in-service teacher, PLEASE do not direct students toward class projects or science fair studies in pseudoscience...."
koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu
Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted....
Joan |
