Have you ever wondered if your cannabis plants have a desire to “Keep On Growing” right alongside you and your favorite album you keep on repeat? Or perhaps you’ve pondered if they’re more interested in the types of vibrations that reverberate from the crunchy grooves of reggae classics like Peter Tosh’s legendary “Legalize It”.
It’s quite possible that humans aren’t the only species to live their best lives in conjunction with good music. With that said, do plants – including cannabis – actually respond positively or negatively to music?
What Does the Research Say?
In terms of recent, viable research on the topic, a 2015 study in the International Journal of Integrative Sciences, Innovation, and Technology expanded on several discoveries from the original research on this subject from all the way back to the early 1900s.
An essential plant hormone known as Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) is a hormone vital to proper plant metabolism and maturation. Researchers in a 2011 study demonstrated that this hormone was found in larger concentrations in six varieties of veggie plants in comparison to the control group, as a result of acoustic music frequencies. [1]
Early research determined that “loud and inharmonious sounds can ruin the mood and health of a plant and blossoms”. Music was also found to not only be a catalyst to increased growth, it also increased the amount of vital metabolites. [2] Courtesy of another study published in 2014, additional research showed that “chants and Indian classical music endorsed growth in roses, while rock music stunted growth.
However, another subsequent study showed that rhythmic rock music helped plant stability and height in comparison to non-rhythmic sounds. Sonic exposure compared to complete silence has also shown a knack for increasing plant growth. [3]
How Can Plants Perceive Music?
Plants also reportedly have their own acoustic frequencies that they emanate themselves. It’s possible that plants can “hear” as a result of sound waves creating a specific pressure that they can then sense.
Synching up the plant’s own frequency with compatible external frequencies has shown to lead to a higher level of photosynthesis and cell division. As a result of those substantial increases in their metabolism, this finding showed that vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers fruited much quicker with “resonant frequency” versus the control group [3].
How Does This Correlate to Cannabis Plants?
Actual scientific and academic studies based on the question of whether music can stimulate cannabis plant growth specifically have yet to surface. However, as a flower-bearing plant, cannabis isn’t too different from most other veggie plants that have been studied and researched already for any effect on their growth resulting from music.
The best plan to put in place regarding whether music–and what genres specifically–can stimulate cannabis plant growth is to research and document it yourself. Keep a grow log and journal to record results and notes regarding how the plants behave during times of exposure to specific music.
A good experiment is to have several cannabis plants in their early veg stage before introducing music to your grow room. Factors like genre, length of songs, volume, and rhythms can be observed and recorded in order to notice trends positive or negative as a result. Be sure to notate any variations in height, leaf productivity/health, and final yields to come to a logical conclusion.
Enlighten and Delight Your Cannabis Plants
Researchers dating all the way back to well over a century ago found themselves curious as to whether plant growth can actually be affected by music.
Results both positive and negative have been determined as a result of subsequent experiments and studies since that time. It seems that harsh or arrhythmic noises or music it seems are quite detrimental to plant health. Classical music, chanting, or even soothing and rhythmic rock music were shown to have the best effect.
So for those curious cannabis cultivators out there, it may be worth your while to start including some Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart into your grow room or garden. Just be sure to save the ear-splitting Eddie Van Halen guitar solos for when you are ready to reap the fruits of your research and labor.
References:
- Junru Z, Shiren J, Lian Quing S. Effects of music acoustic frequency on indoleacetic acid in plants. Agricultural Science and Tech Hunan.2011.12.1749-1752.
- C. Boss, Response in the Living and Non-Living, London, New York, Bombay: Longman’s, Green & Co. 1902
3.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291086163_Effect_of_Music_on_Plants_-_An_Overview
