What if turning up the volume could help your garden grow? Mozart isn’t what’s being talked about this time, although music and plant growth has been debated too.
It turns out that fungi might actually be partial to white noise. Researchers at Flinders University in Australia focused on a fungus commonly used in organic farming.
They found that when a sound similar to radio static was played continuously, it led to this particular species of soil fungus to have a boost in growth compared to those left in silence.
The idea of sound helping plants certainly isn’t new. The “MythBusters” even tried testing whether certain genres like classical or even death metal could help plants thrive.
Ecologists believe this could open doors for sustainable agriculture. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any drawbacks.
In 2020, researchers found that the hum of refrigerators actually increased the growth rate of the kinds of fungus that causes fruit to rot. While sound can help plants, it seems it can also have some unintended consequences.
