Thread: Talking to your plants

So technically, talking to your plants will help them grow. OR just blow on them

Originally posted by Barbizzle
So technicly, talking to yoru plants will help them grow. OR just blow on them

Exactly. Unless you have bad breathe. and if you take those real potent breathe saver it is probably not a good idea either.
Bad breathe no plants!

If I were to ever become interested in keeping house plants or the likes I could perhaps talk to them but solely for personal reasons like adding to the peaceful serenity that plants can make in one's environment.
On the other hand, I doubt I really would simply because thinking on different topics in silence while surrounded by plants can be rather serene in itself.

But aside from my own inner contradictions I really don't think it worthwhile to speak to plants and I'm not looking at this from a scientifical point of view. Even if it were to be proven that speaking to plants is benificial to them I doubt I would do so.

I don't know whether the volume of CO2 exhaled while talking to a plant for a few minutes each day would really make a difference in their long-term growth rate. It doesn't seem all that likely to me, especially if you're talking to it from a couple of feet away, but I suppose it's possible. I've also heard of people claiming that talking to plants and playing them soothing classical music can affect their growth. Apparently this is a fairly wide-spread belief, b/c it ended up on Discovery Channel's "Myth Busters" (a great show, btw). They isolated several specimens of a common house plant in separate greenhouses and kept all environmental variables such as temperature, amount of light, and amount of water constant between the greenhouses. The only difference between the set-ups was the type of music streaming through the stereo placed inside. They had classical, jazz, and some angry modern rock, as I recall. The plants that thrived the most were actually not the ones surrounded by the soothing sounds of easy listening, but rather those innundated by Rob Zombie, Metallica, and the like. Obviously one experiment is not conclusive, but that controlled situation certainly carries more merit than people who just talk to their plants or play them Mozart and notice that they look big and green without investigating and isolating the contributions of the various environmental variables in their homes to the growth of their plants.

Maybe people who talk to their plants also take better care of them. It makes sense after all. If your talking to it everyday your not going to forget to water it or anything.

Ofcourse.

This is part of a basic princible to me. You put your energy into whatever you are growing, and it will respond, wether that is flowers, food. or whatever. That energy will be transmited in the plants growth.

I talk to my plants....I don't know what scientific stuff this entails, but my plants are in great condition. I talk to everything, though, so I don't talk to them so they will grow better. I just chatter away to them, just because. I've never really thought about this before, but I guess it makes since. I tend to think that people who talk to there plants probably just take better care of them, as Alric suggested.

Well, I have to say talking to everything you see probably makes your world a lot more colourful.

Plants likely cannot sense the translation of our words, but they probably pick up a subtle emotional radiance that we emanate as we speak. ??

Originally posted by Peregrinus
I don't know whether the volume of CO2 exhaled while talking to a plant for a few minutes each day would really make a difference in their long-term growth rate. It doesn't seem all that likely to me, especially if you're talking to it from a couple of feet away, but I suppose it's possible. I've also heard of people claiming that talking to plants and playing them soothing classical music can affect their growth. Apparently this is a fairly wide-spread belief, b/c it ended up on Discovery Channel's \"Myth Busters\" (a great show, btw). They isolated several specimens of a common house plant in separate greenhouses and kept all environmental variables such as temperature, amount of light, and amount of water constant between the greenhouses. The only difference between the set-ups was the type of music streaming through the stereo placed inside. They had classical, jazz, and some angry modern rock, as I recall. The plants that thrived the most were actually not the ones surrounded by the soothing sounds of easy listening, but rather those innundated by Rob Zombie, Metallica, and the like. Obviously one experiment is not conclusive, but that controlled situation certainly carries more merit than people who just talk to their plants or play them Mozart and notice that they look big and green without investigating and isolating the contributions of the various environmental variables in their homes to the growth of their plants.

Myth busters is a great show!
So what was the outcome of the program Peregrinus? I assume it was a Myth.

Lets say for example with the music. Could the vibrations play a role in that?
And it would seem that the light, amount of water and all the things that make a plant prosper would happen to go along with that of a person who takes great pride in their plants and would be more apt to talk to them. Even if not on a conscious level on their part. Like alric wrote. "Maybe people who talk to their plants also take better care of them. It makes sense after all. If your talking to it everyday your not going to forget to water it or anything".
I would think the same would go for anything like cooking Nirvana Starseed.
But perhaps there is more to it a passion for something.
I guess an explanation why there are green thumbs and there are people who can't grow a dandelion.
Then again if you look at my initial post you can see that carbon monoxide is considerably difference than carbon dioxide. No wonder my plants are dead!

What other sources are there for carbon dioxide? organic decomposition?

[quote]

Myth busters is a great show!
So what was the outcome of the program Peregrinus? I assume it was a Myth.

Yeah, it was "busted". The interesting thing was, though, that there was an observed difference in the growth of the plants, despite the fact that water, light, and temperature were held constant... If I recall correctly, one of the watering hoses malfunctioned, but the data from that plant was eliminated from the final analysis. I'm not sure what else could have affected them. Perhaps the light level wasn't exactly constant since they were in separate greenhouses and spread out somewhat. They were potted w/ the same soil, though, so it wasn't that. Not a perfect experiment, by any means, but interesting.

Alric made a very good point about people who take the time to talk to their plants would likely be more conscientious in their care. Saying that talking to plants causes them to grow better simply because they show better growth after one begins talking to them is called a "post hoc" logical fallacy, misinterpreting displacement in time as causation. "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc." - After this, therefore because of this. Such thinking disregards any other variables which may have developed or changed concurrent with the variable which one claims is the origin of the observed effect.

As for sources of CO2, probably the most common man-made source is the combustion of carbon compounds (burning organic substances and material – petroleum products, natural gas, wood, etc). Some natural sources include volcanic eruptions, evaporation from the oceans, respiration, and yes, definitely organic decomposition.

I talk to my plants...they don't do too badly either!
i guess it reminds me to water them. I sort of say things like 'you're doing well aren't you? look at your lovely flowers, oh look, there's a new leaf!'
ahem.

Maybe you blow more CO2 towards them... And you refresh their air. Plants don't work well inside anyway..

Plants can think just as much as a hamburger.

Originally posted by Neruo
Maybe you blow more CO2 towards them... And you refresh their air. Plants don't work well inside anyway..

Plants can think just as much as a hamburger.

I have eaten some hamburger that has had more life to them than my house plants!

[quote]

I have eaten some hamburger that has had more life to them than my house plants!

On every burger from McDonalds I bet there are 1000 more organisms on them then on a apple ^__^

Yet, the plant mearly lives becouse he lives becouse he lives, so do the bacteria. So do we, only we are so smart we can kill ourself.

yay.

And plant's don't have feelings, they have no evolutionairy advantages for them.

I frequently disagree with the MythBuster's methods. And this was one of those times. So many opportunities for good science on the show get scrapped in favor of good tv...

The only times I have ever talked to plants were when I was on some kind of drug. Other than that I stick to talking to beings that might actually comprehend what I'm saying, like other humans. Talking to plants seems like it would be just like talking to a wall, except the wall is made up of some processed plant material and then you have the plant that is just plain old plant.

Talking to your pants.

Originally posted by Ex Nine
Talking to your pants.

What did I miss????

i realize this topic is decaying by the side of the road, but i hope to revive it...

has anybody heard of, or read "The Secret Lives of Plants"? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006091587...glance&n=283155

i have not, though i plan to one day. i believe it is the basis for much of the material surrounding this 'myth'. (btw, i love mythbusters, but i certainly wouldn't take their word as definitive on much, especially something as complicated as sentience in plant life.)

the area i am most interested in is experiments done with plants using EEG monitors, which are traditionally used to study electrical current in the human brain.

the following is an excerpt from one review i found on amazon.

"In one experiment, they have a random selection of men. One is chosen at random to go in and destroy one of three plants. The other two plants (common rhododendron) are then hooked up to electro-encephalographs (EEG - brain wave monitors.) and they march the men in one by one. The plants exhibit no alarm, but as soon as the one responsible for the plant death enters the room, the other two plants start registering wildy on the graphs. Basically, they knew who it was that killed their friend."

it would seem that this is a very compelling assertion, that i would love to know more about. i plan to look into it more, but i was hoping someone might help me in finding reliable info on it.
for those who see plant sentience as BS, this is a good place to refute unscientific claims.
and for those who might claim it exists, i would love to know the particulars of this, and similar experiments so that i can verify the controls used.


personally, i lean towards the possibility of plants possessing awareness. this is mostly due to my experiences with various entheogenic plants. with mushrooms and salvia divinorum in particular. many times i feel i 'know' the consciousness of a plant as well as i know some of my human friends.

Originally posted by Asher
i realize this topic is decaying by the side of the road, but i hope to revive it...

has anybody heard of, or read "The Secret Lives of Plants"? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006091587...glance&n=283155

Decaying...Nice

Thanks for your input Asher.
Regardless of what anyone thinks or does sometimes you just have to wonder.
I have been trying to grow Bonsai trees for years now with no success. I have followed all the directions that were given.
About the time when I posted this topic I began to talk to my latest subject called nosfaratue. (The devil) And I have been talking to it ever since.
It is doing g very well. I have separated the plants I have talked to to the ones I have not.
Among 12 plants all but one would justify that talking to them does do something.
Myth, coincidence...maybe. Maybe not!

Lets ,for a moment, Believe that plants have the ability to absorb the energies given off by man. Sitting, talking, and acknowledging a plant as an equal could then be the reason the plant is flourishing. The overall feeling of nurturing would transfer. It may not have sentience, but it "feels" the presence of goodness.

This could explain the phenomenon that surrounds Buddha. It was said that when he walked through the gardens flowers would bloom in his presence. But, I'm sure that's just a little bit of a myth in itself.

[quote]
Decaying...Nice
About the time when I posted this topic I began to talk to my latest subject called nosfaratue. (The devil) And I have been talking to it ever since.
It is doing g very well. I have separated the plants I have talked to to the ones I have not.
Among 12 plants all but one would justify that talking to them does do something.

Aww! Your plants like their daddy

hmmm.. if breathing on plants increases the co2 they get thus making the plants better, then why not just buy a big canister of it and let it loose in the greenhouse. it would also suffocate all living things, putting an end to any pests.

I should point out that if someone cares enough about their plants to TALK to them, don't you think they'd take very good care of it? (reguarly water it, let it get good sun, give it plant food). I don't think I need to elaborate.