Perking Up Plant Personalities

Scientists conduct studies based on vegetation growth

Photo courtesy of Eden Jones

Pictured: Stellaluna, the plant

Photo courtesy of Eden Jones Pictured: Stellaluna, the plant

Studies prove that loving words help plants thrive. An experiment conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) found that plants not subjected to loving words grew slower than the plants subjected to loving words. The plants given loving words grew faster, taller and produced better produce and overall results.

Many of these studies conducted take place at science fairs, but a group of experts wanted to create their own version of the study. Therefore, they decided to take action. The RHS began their experiment with the hypothesis that kind words help a plant grow, and that a male voice produces better results than a female voice.

Starting with ten people, both male and female, and a few tomato plants, the experiment began. Each person read from a scientific work, using nice tones and kind words. Each plant exposed ​to recordings of the scientific texts after 30 days, proved that plants respond better to kind words, but also to a female voice. This fact shocked the scientists and they​ continued ​other studies with more tomato plants.

Taking the recordings from the female speakers, the scientists changed the frequencies of the recordings to all differ from each other. Over the course of a month the plants​ subjected ​to a higher frequency voice produced better results than the plants ​subjected​ to lower frequencies.

The scientists at RHS concluded that plants respond better to female voices because of the higher frequency in their voices. However despite the gender of the speaker, their kind words also affected the plants in a positive way. During the initial study, the plants exposed to kind words produced better results than the plants exposed to silence.

Plants need kindness to thrive as much as us. Kindness builds the spirit and encourages the mind. Without kind words and frequent stories, a plant becomes less productive and begins to wilt. Plants who live their lives in silence still grow. However, they grow slower and produce less.

Many other studies conducted seek to discover if talking to plants truly helps them, and all of these studies produce similar results. Plants respond in a positive way to a person’s voice and the kind words spoken. Therefore, as crazy as it sounds, talking to a plant really makes a difference.