I’ve heard that talking to plants makes them grow faster/healthier, but haven’t found any evidence supporting/debunking this, so I figured this would be the place for that kind of question.
I have a problem believing that some idle conversation with a plant would boost its self esteem, causing it to shoot out of the ground like Jack’s beanstalk.
If anything, I think people that care enough about their plants to talk to them prolly pay more attention to their needs in the first place (watering, sunlight), as opposed to people who forget they have a plant until it’s dead.
Plants obviously don’t understand talking, but what they might respond to is sound waves hitting their leaves. I seem to recall a study with plants and music that showed that plants grew slightly faster when loud music was played constantly around them.
I have heard speculation that the plants respond well to the carbon dioxide that you are exhaling when you are talking to them. (after all, that’s what they breathe.)
Ok - here’s the thing: you have at your disposal (or could do so easily) all you need to find out. Why would you rely on what others tell you when you could do an empirical study of your own? And don’t start running on about strict laboratory conditions, etc., because your question implied that you want to know about plants that one might grow in one’s own home. Check it out yourself, for god’s sake. Yes, yes, I suppose you want to know what the experts have found out over the years. Still, you could see what you could learn by yourself. That’s what’s wrong with science education in this country - we read about science instead of doing it, and people never develop confidence in their own abilities to interact with nature and find answers on their own. Ok, rant over, after hardly beginning.
Why run an experiment when I could just ask? Have you personally tested the speed of light (rhetorical question)? Also, I would need a ‘quiet room’ to run the control group, which is more space than I could sacrifice.
This has posibilites, why not take three newly growing plants and put them in the same room but away from each other so that they can tell when you are addressing them directly
Choose one to be your best friend and talk to it lots, tell it some jokes, pet its leaves etc.
Choose another one to be indiferent to, just treat it like a normal plant.
finaly the remaining plant, be nasty to this one, insult it, call it names (weedy or sprout for instance), try to let it develop a loathing towards you, if its not intimidated enough you could try chineese water tourture on it, just put it under a tap and let water drip repetitivly onto it slowly but continuously.
I wonder how they would turn out, would plant number 3 be socialy mal-ajusted and not be able to function if introduced to other plants
(I cant do this test with plants becuase im not good with them, I forget to water em too often so out of spite they die on me! but someone should think about it, remember to photograph the evidence)
