Conversations with Potted Ferns

I'm big on plants. I love to garden, my room looks like a conservatory, and I find every aspect of plant biology fascinating. And yet, I've never tried talking to my plants. Mostly because I'd feel silly doing so, but also out of the assumption that it would have no effect whatsoever.

Still, out of curiosity I did a bit of digging (har) on the subject, and found that several studies have been conducted, with suprising results.

www.rps.psu.edu...

Mrs. Darwin was an avid plant-talker:
organicgardening.about.com...

And then there's this:
royce3.tripod.com...

There are other studies linking sound and music to plant growth, some scientists going so far as to propose broadcasting classical music across crops in order to increase yield.

These experiments seem to indicate that conversing with plants does indeed positively affect their development, but is it the sound waves or the intent of the speaker which stimulates growth? Dunno, but either way, I've got 125 seedlings who are going to get sweet-talked ala Barry White on a daily basis. Couldn't hurt (my dignity aside), and it might help.

So, ATS green-thumbs, do you talk to your plants, and if so what do you say?

Of course you can talk to plants. After all, we are all Earthlings.

They talk directly to your mind, and once you get the knack for it, It's awesome.

They have a lot to say.

I think that talking to youre plants can help them grow becuase plants use carbon-dioxide to photosynthasize.

My good friend has a grow operation for[SNIP] and he grows his to inspirational gospel music...a lot of it is pretty relaxing and inspirational music...they've grown pretty well and healthy and big...so maybe it works

it's legit grow if ur wondering haha

You are only scratching the surface (har, har) of the subject. A few decades ago, a fellow named Cleve Alexander--I believe that is right--did some amazing work with plants. He demonstrated that they felt pain, that they felt pain produced in other organisms in the vacinity and responded to--get this--being hooked to a lie detector unit. He found that plants literally scream in their own fashion when damaged or even threatened!

As far as I know, no one proved him wrong, crazy or a liar. There was at least one book on the topic perhaps more.

However, you will find a lot of correspondingly supportive data has developed over the subsequent years from conventional studies that detail about how how plants react to various factors that interact with them.

One can jump to the conclusion of a basic metaphysical "law" that claims that everything, a speck of dirt, a rock and especially living organisms have a sense of being even if that state is restricted according their particular circumstances.

reply to post by Aliensun


Holy crap, after some preliminary research, my mind is duly effing blown! Er, does this mean I must become a Jain? At the very least, I'm glad I've always been gentle and even affectionate toward my plants.

Back in school one of these anti-rock music preachers told us that a woman sued Led Zeppelin in the 1970's, because all her pot plants died after she blasted their music.

Not sure if it's true, but plants seem to prefer classical music (or at least, the people who write these books do and they use the plants to justify their musical taste).

By the way, does anybody recall the Findhorn garden?
They were famous for growing enormous vegetables by communicating with the plants, such as 40 pound cabbages.
www.findhorn.org...

reply to post by halfoldman


I'm not one for getting the Led out myself, but mostly because I am of the opinion that they are to the genre they co-opted and bastardized what watery AA-style Folgers is to the velvety sucker-punch of high-quality French-pressed rocket sauce. So maybe the plants are onto something there.

Originally posted by Aliensun
You are only scratching the surface (har, har) of the subject. A few decades ago, a fellow named Cleve Alexander--I believe that is right--did some amazing work with plants. He demonstrated that they felt pain, that they felt pain produced in other organisms in the vacinity and responded to--get this--being hooked to a lie detector unit. He found that plants literally scream in their own fashion when damaged or even threatened!

As far as I know, no one proved him wrong, crazy or a liar. There was at least one book on the topic perhaps more.

However, you will find a lot of correspondingly supportive data has developed over the subsequent years from conventional studies that detail about how how plants react to various factors that interact with them.

One can jump to the conclusion of a basic metaphysical "law" that claims that everything, a speck of dirt, a rock and especially living organisms have a sense of being even if that state is restricted according their particular circumstances.

edit on 21-4-2011 by Aliensun because: (no reason given)

Wow, that is interesting and a little scary! I did a bit of research after reading this thread. I just wanted to mention that the guy's name was actually Cleve Backster, in case anyone wants to look him up

en.wikipedia.org...

I have house plants that don't seem to grow well despite vitamins in the soil and a good light source. Time to start talking to them, as long as no one is around LOL.

reply to post by Aliensun
I hope plants don't feel pain. I grow hops and in the spring they put out hundreds of eager shoots all of which must be cut down except for the 2 or 3 hardiest. These will grow 20-30 feet between now and summer's end putting out many lateral bines. That would be very painful I think when I cut all those first growth bines back. I hope my hops don't see me coming and cringe. They may make my beer taste bad.

here is my thread on conversations, of a sort, with a sick tree www.abovetopsecret.com... The tree is tentatively scheduled to be taken down in a couple of weeks, depending on the results of a consultation with the landscaper who contacted us. I can still get "vibes" from trees. I do not know what caused this ability and I didn't have it before and may lose it at any time. I get only basic feelings like calm, agitation, and something akin to amusement once from this one tree growing along a park path. I don't get like detailed conversations about the tree's cousin Louie that had an affair with a Virginia Creeper or anything like that.

Since my experience with this sick tree I've done some Internet searches on the subject of communication between people and plants. One woman says that if trees have to be cut down for whatever reason you can calm their distress a bit by mentally explaining what is going to happen and telling them in advance to withdraw their life force. I tried that with my sick tree. I get the feeling it didn't know it was dying and was alarmed at the changes it was going through. Now it sort of knows, I guess, but while its energy it transmits is slower, which I take as calmer, it is still suffering. I wish we could get it put out of its misery sooner but we are doing the best we can on our limited budget and with the tight schedule of the person we are consulting.

After everything I've gone through with that tree I now wish I didn't have to rely on anything being killed for my sustenance. I've researched an alternative diet that relies on consuming only fruit but it's not very practical when I have a growing kid to raise. Hey, maybe someday we will all get to inhabit a perfect world where our survival doesn't require consuming another living being. Until then, just try to appreciate and respect all the sacrifice that goes into keeping oneself alive.

Oh and sorry for all the laugh emoticons in my above post. I don't think my tree suffering is a laughing matter. I'm just feeling still very shy and sheepish talking about this whole thing. You have to understand, waking up one day and going out and finding out if you touch trees you can feel communication from them is a very surreal experience. I'm not exactly a stranger to paranormal experiences, but given that I'm a horrible gardener and try to avoid plants and inflicting my "brown thumb" on them, I would have thought I'd be the last person to be blessed in such a way.

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain


My thought upon reading about Cleve's research was how feasible it would be to live off a diet of legumes, fruits, seeds, and perhaps eggs. I'm currently ovo-lacto veggie, so now I'm mulling stuff over. Also, do not feel sheepish about sharing your experience, it was quite relevant to this thread.

I speak to plants and flowers at times. Not neccesarily daily, weekly, or even monthly. But a couple of weekends ago I was looking at my wysteria and I went up to one, held it in my hand, put my nose to it and called it "beautiful".

reply to post by mistermonculous


Such a diet is feasible for an adult in some circumstances. From what I read it can be detrimental to a growing child and fatal to toddlers, though. I think the diet is called "fruititarian" or "fruitatarian". I read a blog by a guy who adheres to this diet and he is a marathon runner. He looks to be in excellent shape. He is a really small guy, though. I'm small, too, with a high metabolism like he seems to have. I do not know how a very tall and large boned person would fare under such a diet. I know there is no way I could ever convince my husband to try it so rather than drive myself crazy trying to make three separate meals I'll stick with the status quo. We are enduring budgetary strain as it is just trying to keep to organic fruits and veggies and free range and hormone and antibiotic free meats. Now I also have to worry about polluted seafood and radiated produce from the Fukushima fallout. Whoa, life sure is different from my childhood.

Thanks for welcoming me to the thread.

By the way I have a feeling probably anybody these days may be able to feel the same vibe I do off of trees. I think you just have to have the guts to try it and patience to let yourself learn to distinguish real energy you are feeling from the plant vs. imagining what you think the plant is feeling. The real energy is something you just feel and it goes through your whole body. When I feel the distress in my sick tree I feel ill and shaky myself. It really goes down to my gut and makes me double over a little. I actively resist the urge to try and decipher what the tree is "thinking" because at this stage of the game I think that could pollute the process with my own vain imaginings. Maybe someday I will be able to make more of this communion of energy but right now I'm just humbled enough to feel anything at all besides plain old bark when I touch a tree.

I guess the best way I can put it is feel first, resonate second, and identify the very basic emotion conveyed in your resonance third. If you're not sure, what, if any emotion applies, don't try to label it. Just accept you felt something and have a nice day.

I feel that I'm on the verge of understanding some vital truth about communication. Does the act of communication create a conduit?

There are, as far as I can tell, several layers of distortion between the idea and the cognitive filters through which that idea must passed before transmission. The idea is then processed by the recipient of the communique, and passed through all their respective filters; and thus is subject to further distortion.

Does language facilitate or hobble communication? Do words clog the conduit? I love linguistic form (clearly), but have often found that even after extensive modification of the way I am naturally inclined to speak, I still fail to be adequately understood.

So maybe plants, er, take in unfiltered content?

I'm sure you'll love this movie if you havn't seen it already, here is a clip from it...



The full movie has the same title and is also on youtube if I'm not mistaken.

reply to post by polarwarrior


Thanks to you, this is pretty darn awesome!

Thecond line.

reply to post by mistermonculous


Holy crap, man. How did I miss your posts. I am new to this Online Forum thing and recently realized it is possible to 'friend' people.

I love plants also. Very deeply. I have a green thumb that runs on both sides. When I got out of the service I worked professionally in the plant field for over 6 years. I am actually a plant fiend and have had at times; poison gardens, psychedelic-psychoactive-psychotropic gardens, puerly Solanaceous gardens. For the past ten years I have been into ferns and have been most recently successful at getting Polystichiae to grow in pots.

Yep, I talk to them. All the time. If no one has rec'ed it I would suggest 'The Secret Life of Plants' by Peter Tomkins.

Also check out Findhorn. Also 'Devas, Fairies and Angels' by William Bloom. Mr. Bloom is also known for having completed the Abramelin Operation.

Duuuuude.

A couple of years ago, I was quite ill over the New Year's period. I had a very large ficus on the (glass enclosed) balcony because it had been very warm up until the point that I got sick. I mean, we were just wearing heavy sweaters outside. Not a proper winter by any means, for this part of the world. So this ficus was out there when one night I was awakened by a voice asking me to help her. I was so sick, I couldn't move my own body. She asked again if I could help her because it was too cold and she wouldn't survive it.

My dear, dear ficus. We had been together since I bought her about 17 years prior. She was in terrible condition when I got her and stayed that way for many years. Then we moved when I got divorced and she blossomed into the most beautiful, lush thing you've ever seen.

Well, I had no strength and I had no voice, so I couldn't do anything to help her. I replied to her to that effect. She seemed very sad about that but took her fate quite well. I think plants have a better acceptance of life cycles than we humans do.

The following summer, I was out walking a dog when I passed a big skip that was collecting cabinets and stuff during the remodeling of a neighboring building. As I walked past, I saw a sunburnt ficus leaf. I backed up and peered over the edge of the skip. There was a badly hacked, small ficus there being dried by the harsh sunlight. I took it home. For the first year, there was little improvement in its condition, despite my working with it quite a bit. This year, it's looking pretty good already. It too will reside on the balcony until autumn, being as it is rather fragile and may remain so for quite a long time.

Quite often I come across plants that actively ask me to take them home with me. There was some sort of succulent growing in the granite behind our building. One of them begged to be taken with, so I prised it out of the rock and put it in a similar amount of soil in a similarly-shaped container. I thought I'd lost her during the winter but she was just sleeping. Lovely long vines now and spring has just started!

You know, there are very spiritual people who can use plants as telephones. Apparently you enter a particular state of meditation while doing this.

Our planet, our beloved Mother Earth, supplies us with everything we need. We are never without company and never unloved. We are just really bad at recognizing this and even worse at reciprocating it.