Growth and Noise

[Thomas Bjorkman]

In article <3fl9jb$dd2 at news.onramp.net>, clively at onramp.net wrote:

> In message <3fjr6k$l43 at ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>, MargeC at ix.netcom.com (Marge 
> Congress) writes:

>  >How does sound energy effect a plant's behavior? From what I found out 
>  >it does effect their growth a little bit. Is there any literature on the 
>  >subject?
> As I suggested to another poster who was looking for information on the
> effects of EMF on plants, take a look at a couple of books entitled 
> "The Secret Life of Plants" and "Secrets of the Soil" by Peter Tompkins
> and Christopher Bird.  Both books look at the relationship of plants to
> their environment, e.g. their human caretakers, EMF, sound, etc.  
> 
> Some of the stuff that they touch on is a bit "wild/on the fringe", but
> as I stated in an earlier post, they are very thought-provoking.

"On the fringe" is putting it mildly!  The Secret Life of Plants is pure
hogwash  by a guy who does not let reality interfere with his
imagination.  There are plenty of reputable sources of infromation on this
subject.  A popular book called "The Action Plant" is solidly-based and is
far more thought-provoking.  As far as the effects of sound on plants, it
falls in the category of responses to vibration.  Loud noise is just one
way of shaking or vibrating a plant. Cary Mitchell has coined the term
seismomorphogensis for the growth responses of plants to vibration. The
main response is a reduction in the elongation growth of the stem.

-- 
Thomas Bjorkman    Dept. of Horticultural Sciences   Cornell University