talking to the plants

[puzzlejunky]

Just curious if any of you talk to your plants or if you think it's flaky. I've been reading about experiments in which plants grow better with praise. Nothing formal....a mythbusters episode and web experiments. Would love to see a more formal study. I've seen studies that say plants talk to each other..but nothing that proves they benefit from our praise.

My dad insists that plants do better with talking..but I'm skeptical. I do, however, talk to our Akita mix...but that's different...he really understands.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know about praise. But there is a saying "the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." So if you are talking to your plants, you are probably also looking at them, observing them, paying attention to changes, seeing how they react to different circumstances/ treatments. That is always a good thing and your plants are likely to do better with that kind of attention.

But I outgrew personalizing my plants a long time ago. When I first started growing plants from seed, I was so enraptured with the miracle that a plant appeared where just a little bit ago was dirt with an invisible seed in, that I named each individual plant! That was before I was growing 500 of them at a time!

[puzzlejunky]

My ex husband bought me a cilantro plant. Everyone in the house thinks cilantro tastes like soap. I think it's hereditary..I substitute parsley when it's called for in a recipe.

I know it's anecdotal evidence, but everyone keeps calling it the yucky soap plant..and you know, it starting to look less healthy. Hmmmm....

[tomf]

If you talk to your plants and they talk back you may need help.
I love cilantro.

[puzzlejunky]

Julia Child hated cilantro too. My brother is a chef by profession (and has a pretty sophisticated palette) and gets the soapy taste too. I've heard that if you make cilantro pesto the soapy taste isn't as bad and you can train yourself to like it, even if you carry the cilantro hating gene.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/2 ... 01124.html


I watched an interesting documentary this morning on how plants communicate with one another.

https://video.pbs.org/video/2338524490/

I think it senses your zip code and gives you your local pbs


I might try devising an experiment of my own to see if they grow any better with human speech.

[kayjay]

I agree with Rainbowgardener in that if you're talking to them, you're also observing. Another thing: they respire CO2, and that's what we exhale. So get up close to them when you're talking to them and give them a good dose of CO2.

...and yes, I occasionally talk to them. They might be getting some ethanol from my breath, too.

[webmaster]

It's a myth based on a book that came out in the seventies titled, The Secret Life of Plants, a book that has been discredited. Today we have Facebook for spreading myths and false notions. Back then it was done largely through best selling books and television programs about bigfoot, the Bermuda triangle, alien visitations and talking to your plants. I addressed another of the myths from that same book (the whopper that music helps plants grow) in this discussion here.

Here's an excerpt from an article from the American Society for Cell Biology:

Skepticism is part and parcel of scientific thinking, but particular caution may be warranted in the field of plant behavior because of the 1970s book and documentary called The Secret Life of Plants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGl4btrsiHk). The Secret Life of Plants was a sensation at the time and was largely responsible for the persistent myths that talking to your plants makes them healthier, that plants have auras, and that plants grow better when played classical music rather than rock. While the program woke people up to the notion that plants indeed do fascinating things, the conclusions based on bad science or no science at all were in the end more destructive than helpful to this aspect of plant science. Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and other excellent plant books, addresses some of the controversy that dogs the field of plant behavior in an interview on the public radio program Science Friday (https://sciencefriday.com/segment/01/03/ ... think.html). His article “The Intelligent Plant” in the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013 ... ntPage=all), covers similar ground.

[puzzlejunky]

Thanks webmaster.

The Michael pollen article was really fascinating as was the science Friday podcast. ( I love science Friday and subscribe to their podcast, but had missed that one).

I saw the secret life of plants many years ago, and didn't realize it had been debunked as new age mumbo jumbo. Kinda disappointing.. but the real science of plant intelligence is just as fascinating, if not more so.

I'm catholic..and we believe plants have souls, but their souls Are of a different nature than human ones. Thomas Aquinas wrote of it centuries ago, glad to see he's being shown to be right. Kinda..or at least that plants have a kind of consciensceness that could be interpreted as a soul.

Ive taken to talking to my plants...though I see now that it's probably the added attention and not the speech helping them. The cilantro plant is doing much better. It's still being called the yucky soap plant..but moving it to a different window with more sun is saving it.

[pinksand]

I do talk to my plants. It is more "tough love" than cooing and praise. I remind them that they are sucking up nutrients and water, and I expect results. No results, you are out of here!
It seems to work.

Lol, that's one way to do it!

I don't really speak to my plants with any particular goal in mind but do find myself saying things like "come on little guy, don't look sad!" when I water or "Oh I'm sorry little guy!" if I accidentally step on a plant. I also tend to give my plants genders... many of my shrubs are girls because they've already been assigned names like "Betty" (saucer magnolia), "Sarah" (mountain laurel) or Annabelle (hydrangea).

[groundsman1983]

Definitely talk to your plants. A always say good morning with a smile when I first step out to water the garden though I'm luckily I have a young son so it doesn't feel quite so crazy so say "Wow your beautiful thats a gorgeous new flower" at a new bloom or "oh dear you poor lil'darlin we'll get you fixed up in no time" when I find a little black spot on the roses. when you speak you project yourself to those around you. sad to say but people are more excepting if put in term of negativity. someone's in a bad mood and is a little short with someone then that person then feels a bit more negative so will be harsher to those around them..who then go on to pass that to those around them and it spreads best way to defeat it is to hold on to it and refuse to let it out however we feel at the time isnt permanent our moods change even if it takes awhile ^_^ but once it does then that negativity is gone..for good. but its the same with positivity if you hold onto it you will choke it out so surly its better to let it spread at every chance you get and it does effect plants,people most things genuinely display a physical effect. like the say laughter is the best cure for any ill. but science can back this aswell heres some links. https://www.positive-thinking-principles ... power.html https://youtu.be/tHfyV_3qhRM it actualy works !!!

[puzzlejunky]

thanks groundsman. I watched the video and I'm a bit skeptical...but it can't hurt to stay positive!

[tomf]

[puzzlejunky]

HA ha Tom.

[jsauer7978]

I enjoy looking over all my plants. I may say a few things to them, mostly you smell great. Nothing like the smell of a tomatoes leaves. But I was walking through the garden and had Slipknot playing on my phone and thought to myself my plants are going to be angry if I keep playing this . Well time to give them an Epsom Salt bath.

[hendi_alex]

I talk to my chickens, but I'm not going to eat them. Wouldn't want to be getting too friendly with something I'm going to eat though. So no talking to the garden veggies for me!

[Sweyn]

Just curious if any of you talk to your plants or if you think it's flaky.

It's good enough for Prince Charles

He famously admitted giving his plants a little verbal encouragement.

Now the Prince of Wales has made a further revelation: he not only chats to his flowers, he instructs them.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lants.html