Effects of musical sound on the germination of seeds

Abstract

A series of five experiments were performed to determine if musical sound had a different effect than non-musical sound on the germination of zucchini and okra seeds when compared to a control. Musical sound for this study was a collection of improvised works performed by R. Carlos Nakai and Paul Horn. Predominant instrumentation was different types of flute with some selections for soprano saxophone or bass voice. Non-musical sound was "pink" noise used to test loudspeakers. The first three experiments compared musical sound to a control. The last two experiments compared musical sound to non-musical sound to a control. The number of seeds that had sprouted was counted every 12 hours over a 72-hour time span. Data from the germination of 3,600 seeds over a total of 14 runs for the five experiments were examined using five-way analyses of variance of mixed design. The main effect for musical sound versus control over all five experiments was highly significant (p < 0.002). Positional location, temperature and seed type were shown not to be factors. Over the eight runs of the last two experiments (2,400 seeds) there were no significant interactions between non-musical sound and control. The two-way interaction between condition and time for the three conditions of musical sound, non-musical sound and control was statistically significant (p < 0.03) indicating that the musical sound used for this study had a greater effect than the non-musical sound. These results imply that effects of musical sound extend beyond the psychological and suggest the possibility that musical sound can have physiological effects on biological systems.