Talking to Plants | Can Plants Hear & Is There an Impact

Like all of our fellow garden lovers out there, we at Gardenuity are always looking for new ways to nurture our gardens. After all, your garden can become an integral part of your household environment. 

This is not a new conversation; since the 1800s, biologists have been researching whether or not talking to your plants actually helps them flourish. This week, we’re going to tell you all the right things to say to your plant family– they might just continue the conversation!

Can Plants Hear?

By nature, plants are designed to be highly adaptable to their environments. This means that, yes, they do indeed hear what is happening around them.

The way that plants listen and respond is slightly different than how humans interact; plants understand sounds that allude to the environment in which they reside. This is an evolutionary process that has developed in plants in order to help them nourish and protect themselves. 

Do Plants React to Human Voices?

Here’s the good news: plants do respond to the sound of your voice. In a study conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society, research demonstrated that plants did respond to human voices. 

In this study, there were 10 tomato plants, 8 of which had headphones placed around their pots. Over the course of one month, the plants would be read scientific and literary texts by both male and female voices each day. By the end of the month, the results concluded that plants who were read to grew more than the plants that were not read to. Additionally, the results revealed that the plants which listened to female voices grew about 1” more than those who listened to male voices. 

How do You Talk to Plants?

In order to provide your plants with stimulating conversation, you don’t have to give each pot a pair of headphones (although, no one is stopping you from going that extra mile!) What you can do is simply talk to your plants or start talking around your plants in order to help them grow.

Research by South Korea’s National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology shows that plants begin to react to sound at 70 decibels. Lucky for us, 70 decibels is the sound level for the average human conversation. The more and the louder you talk or play music around your plants, the more stimulated they will be. 

How do Plants Respond to their Environment?

In research conducted by Evolutionary Biologist, Monica Gagliano, evidence shows that pea seedlings reacted to the sounds of their environment. The sound introduced to these seedlings was the sound of running water. One tray had an enclosed plastic tube of running water at the end of it, and one had dry soil at the end, but BOTH trays of seedlings grew towards the sound of the water.

Plants not only hear your speaking, but they hear the things that will help them grow best.

How amazing is that?

What is the Effect of Sound on Plants?

Speaking, playing music, and natural noises provided from the environment all play a part in how your plant grows. Rich Marini, from Penn State’s horticultural department, even suggests that plants respond to vibrations from sound waves because they are similar to how a plant is stimulated by the wind.

All of these sources of sound waves and vibrations stimulate growth in your plants. 

Do Plants Get Lonely?

Even though plants are extremely intuitive when it comes to listening to their environment, you don’t have to worry about hurting their feelings. Plants lack the complex brain system that is necessary to feel loneliness or be conscious of the world around them in an emotional way. 

That being said, the more plants, the merrier home!

Plants may not be affected by a lack of companionship, but having more plants in your home will certainly provide an undeniable boost for you and your family.