I read a few books on the topic many years ago..for what it was worth. They mostly stated Baroque and Classical music was best and that rock style music was not beneficial. Much of their logic was based on beats per minute. I found it interesting to read that not only did plants enjoy classical stuff but they stated the plants actually grew and reached around the speakers. And for other music (rock) they grew away from the speakers. I talk and sing around them and often play a NA flute and my flat-top guitar in the greenhouse. On a side note, in my college pre-med days I stumbled onto a book called Super-Learning a Russian technique for advanced and simpler ways to learn. You play classical music as you study which flips on different brain patterns which further aids in increasing your learning and memory skills. I disliked classical music at the time but I did in anyways and kept the music on a very low volume just to give it a whirl. It wasn't long before I'd be walking around whistling these classical songs that at one time I couldn't stand...and my retention process and grades actually got better. Now I am a big fan of classical stuff. Plants dig it too.
snippet: "It may surprise you to learn plants respond very well to music based on many scientific lab studies. For many years the practice was to talk to plants. That's because plants have a way of hearing. The human voice helped them to grow more and stay healthier. However, as time passed these studies later found plants responded better to music than to a person's tone of voice. Now the question remains what type of music is effective for indoor plants or flowers, plants, and trees that are situated in a garden? As stated earlier many scientific studies are in agreement that rock music has detrimental effects on plant growth.
One such study from the 1970's at the Colorado Women's College (now acquired by the University of Denver) played rock music to one group of plants and soothing classical music to another group. Unfortunately the plants with the rock music were very sickly whereas the classical music plants were healthier, larger than before and growing towards the radio where the music came from. The book
The Secret Life of Plants devotes a lot of information on the exposure of various kinds of music on household plants. You may have noticed classical music playing at garden centers and professional greenhouses to help stimulate their plant's growth. Now that classical music is the prime choice for plants and gardens what types of classical music is the most effective.
Classical music ranges from operas and symphonies to concertos and chamber music. Based on findings from a Weber State University master thesis an experiment was conducted on plants and different types of music. Each was placed in six chambers. The plants that received specific classical music from the Baroque period with adagio tempos, music that is played slowly, preferred this overwhelmingly by wrapping their branches around the music speakers. Indian Sitar music also had the same exact effect too. With that in mind its obvious classical music is the choice of music for plants and gardens. Also, adagio movements of baroque music and Indian Sitar are the very best of these music genres. Here now are ten songs, or classical music and Indian Sitar musical works that are recommended for your plants and gardens to thrive like never before."
Ten best songs for plants I am surprised Moonlite Sonata and Pachabel's Canon isn't on this list:
http://voices.yahoo.com/top-10-songs-plants-gardens-thrive-on-5678696.html
