{"id":3403,"date":"2020-10-09T08:59:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T08:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2020-10-10T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T13:59:11","slug":"music-for-the-plants-a-sustainable-way-to-boost-crop-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/en\/health-nutrition\/music-for-the-plants-a-sustainable-way-to-boost-crop-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Music for the plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Music for plants\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8ra6bNRD0cI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Does\nplaying music (or other sounds) to plants accelerate their growth or help them develop\nmore successfully?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nquestion has generated a fair amount of buzz among plant scientists for a long\ntime. There are those who don&#8217;t want to wait for science to come to a\nsubstantiated conclusion. A farmer from central Macedonia, for instance, who\nbelieves that classical music has a positive effect on plants, plays them\npieces of the well-known Austrian composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. According\nto the farmer, playing classical music to his watermelons yielded him the\nsweetest fruits in the entire region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musician\nMort Garson, a native of Canada, upped the ante, writing music exclusively for\nplants. The album &#8220;Mother Earth&#8217;s Plantasia,&#8221; released in 1976, with\nthe title &#8220;Warm Earth Music for Plants &#8230; and People Who Love Them&#8221;,\ncontained songs with names such as &#8220;Symphony for the Spider Plant&#8221;\nand &#8220;Concerto for Philodendron and Photos.&#8221; Initially, the album&#8217;s\ndistribution was limited, but it gained more popularity over time, and in 2019,\nthe album was re-released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof.\nDaniel Chamovitz, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of\nthe popular science book &#8220;Plant: what does he know?&#8221; thinks that\nplaying music may have a positive effect, but not necessarily on the plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There\nmay be an effect, no study contradicts that, but it could also hold for the people\nwho grow the plants. There is no scientific proof that if we play music to our\nplants, they will grow faster or become better in quality. I assume that those\nfarmers and gardeners who think that music is good for their plants simply\nbecome better farmers and gardeners when they play the music.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether\nplaying music has a positive effect on crops or farmers, there is no doubt that\nthe world needs to appreciate every opportunity available in order to grow\nenough food to meet the world&#8217;s demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto UN data, 821 million people suffered from malnutrition in 2018. This number\nis expected to increase significantly in the coming years due to dwindling\nresources caused by unsustainable human exploitation. In addition, the growing\nclimate crisis and extreme weather events have devastating effects on\nagricultural areas and crop yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hence, any potential measure that could increase agricultural efficiency and lead to a larger crop yield with minimal environmental damage should be seriously considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/jan-kopriva-LTMaAwxanGk-unsplash-2048x1363.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Whether playing music has a positive effect on crops or farmers, there is no doubt that the world needs to appreciate every opportunity available in order to grow enough food to meet the world&#8217;s demand.. Photo by Jan Kop\u0159iva on Unsplash<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>How do\nyou hear without ears?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aside from\nthe scientific debates on the social and environmental importance stemming from\nthis subject, there is also an anatomical or linguistic issue \u2013 after all,\nplants do not have ears, so how can we presume that they &#8220;hear&#8221; the\nmusic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When\nI am told that it does not make sense for plants to hear because they have no\nears, I answer: plants see and have no eyes, plants smell and have no nose, so\nit is not surprising that they hear and have no ears,&#8221; says Chamovitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;True,\ntoday there is no clear scientific answer to the question \u2018how do plants\nhear?\u2019, but we know that in humans and other animals during the process of\nhearing, vibrations occur in the ear when subjected to sound waves,&#8221; he\nadds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/ele.13331\">study<\/a> conducted in 2019 at the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University by Chamovitz, Prof. Lilach Hadani, Prof. Yossi Yuval, and Dr. Yuval Sapir has demonstrated that three minutes after the Beach evening-primrose (Oenothera drummondii) &#8220;heard&#8221; the sound of bee wings, the concentration of sugar in its nectar increased by about 20 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This\nfigure shows us that the Beach evening-primrose uses sound frequencies to\nsurvive,&#8221; says Chamovitz. &#8220;The higher the sugar concentration in its\nnectar, the more pollinators will want to come and drink from it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This finding may not be useful to farmers and gardeners, but it might help them improve the pollen of the Beach evening-primrose and other plants &#8211; if it turns out that they react the same way, &#8220;explains Prof. Yuval. &#8220;Of course, this finding is also important as a basic scientific fact: a new aspect of communication between plants and animals, which we did not know before.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is a high chance that this phenomenon also exists in other flowers, and not only in the Beach evening-primrose &#8211; but that question, of course, requires further examination,&#8221; adds Professor Hadani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/benjamin-combs-wuU_SSxDeS0-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>A study conducted in 2019 demonstrated that three minutes after the Beach evening-primrose (Oenothera drummondii) &#8220;heard&#8221; the sound of bee wings, the concentration of sugar in its nectar increased by about 20 percent. Photo by Benjamin Combs on Unsplash<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Moving\ntowards the water<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further\nresearch may support the claim that playing music promotes plant growth. For\nexample, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00442-017-3862-z\">study<\/a> published in 2017 by researchers at the\nUniversity of Western Australia, it was claimed that a cultivated pea plant\n(Pisum sativum) is able, under laboratory conditions, to sense the movement of\nwater in the soil and pipes and thus direct the growth of their roots towards\nthis water. Apparently, the plant was also sensing the degree of moisture in\nthe soil and used it for directional accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nprocess has a common denominator with the process that had been observed in the\nBeach evening-primrose: both plants respond in order to survive, and in both\nresponses, plants rely on different sound frequencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto Chamovitz, this is a preliminary study that requires external validation,\nand Yuval adds that &#8220;today, Prof. Monica Gagliano, who headed the research\nteam of the Australian study, is the main researcher in the field of \u2018plant\nhearing\u2019 &#8211; and on the face of it the study seems convincing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The\nreason there is little research on the topic of sounds and plants is that most\nplant researchers do not understand sound, and most sound researchers do not\nunderstand plants,&#8221; says Yuval. Despite the relative lack in research in\nthat field, Hadani maintains his optimism: &#8220;There are certain mechanisms\nin the academic system that actually encourage &#8216;adventurous&#8217; studies like this,\nand there are funding pathways, like FIRST&nbsp;\n(Focal Initiatives in Science and Technology), which supports high-risk\nresearch like ours.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Hadani, more studies in the field will be published soon, and with increasing knowledge, it might be possible that also the world of agriculture will consider adopting innovative and more unconventional methods to optimize agricultural output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This ZAVIT article was also published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishjournal.com\/commentary\/blogs\/322483\/music-for-the-plants-is-it-a-sustainable-way-to-boost-crop-production\/\">The Jewish Journal<\/a>&nbsp;on 10\/05\/2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does playing music (or other sounds) to plants accelerate their growth or help them develop more successfully? This question has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":3405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"post-meta-fields":{"_edit_lock":["1602338351:11"],"_edit_last":["11"],"subtitle":["Some gardeners claim that playing music for their garden plants helps them grow. Others even write music, especially for plants, to increase the growth rate. But can plants even hear? And if so, can this property be utilized to increase agricultural yields and feed the world's ever-growing population? Israeli scientists weigh in on the matter"],"_subtitle":["field_59d3d36ea7fe1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_thumbnail_id":["3405"],"_oembed_315092893d121d708e3b853f1f4c50d0":["<iframe title=\"Music for plants\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8ra6bNRD0cI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>"],"_oembed_time_315092893d121d708e3b853f1f4c50d0":["1602233987"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3426,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions\/3426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}