'Different types of music were then utilized in her following experiments. She tried acid rock music by Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, and Hendrix. It was played to one group of plants and semi-pop music (of the 1970's) to another. The "acid rock music" plants were sickly and small compared to the control group of "semi popular" music (now termed soft rock).
The other genres of music she experimented with: were classical music (Debussy), jazz (she used Louis Armstrong among others), and Indian (Ravi Shankar). The plants grew large and healthy, with the plants actually growing towards the radio for each of these three forms of music, just like they bend towards sunlight. Dorothy also experimented with country music (such as Jonny Cash) and found they neither grew toward or away from the speakers and seemed neutral. While Dorothy did have a personal bias and by the end of her research she believed plants could feel and were capable of ESP. She felt perhaps it was the lyrics that the plants didn't like with the acid rock music.
It seems the plants like all types of music, except hard, pounding rhythms, but prefer stringed instruments the most. They also didn't like a constant tone played for 8 hours per day, but how many of us do!'
An opinion on the effect of different types of music on the well-being of plants.
1970s experiment conducted by Dorothy Retallack.
