What A Plant Knows
"A Field Guide To The Senses"
Daniel Chamovitz 2012 Scientific American
I think most “serious” gardeners get the feeling, at least on occasion, that their plants are both talking and listening. I grow Cannabis and and apples and veggies, and I hear their messages most every day in one way or another. They want more of this or less of that, or they really didn’t like that last defoliation I did. It’s a dialog of sorts.
The author, Daniel Chamovitz, is engaging and readable. At under 200 pages cover to cover it’s a quick read. He makes his point and moves along efficiently. The book should interest hands-on growers of any style who want to better understand their crops.
Rather than stroking the anthropogenic notion that our soul vibes are the deciding factor in creating dank buds, the author explains that plants ARE seeing the light you provide without having eyes, and tasting the minerals we provide them without mouths. The know which way is up and they feel the world around them. But you aren’t the only thing in their world. We may be obsessing over their well being but they aren’t so much aware of us as they are of the totality of their environment. You control their world, but They don’t know that.
So, what DOES a plant know? First off, we are talking about the numerous sensory mechanisms of plants in general, NOT cannabis in particular. You will be able to interpolate many, but not all, of these observations to cannabis. Our favorite plant is sensitive to many of the environmental stimuli discussed in one or more ways.
Admirably, the author is a reporter rather than an advocate. He presents the topic, for example, “What a Plant Tastes,” and then methodically plows through the current evidence. Some of it is compelling, other claims not so much.
Each chapter addresses a different sense; sight, smell, etc. For example, most growers have, at one time or another, wondered if their plants responded to music. That interest goes all the way back to Charles Darwin who played his bassoon to a mimosa plant with inconclusive results.
Sound, of course, is a form of pressure waves in the air that cause tiny hairs in our inner ear to vibrate and send electrical signals that are interpreted by our brains. Those pretty little hairs covering cannabis stems must also vibrate, maybe even the mushroom stalks of the trichomes dance to the tune as well?
Here’s a snip from the chapter “What a Plant Hears”
“The Temple Bell Stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.”
-Matsuo Basho
Chamovitz says,"…various forms of rigorous scientific research have shed light on the plant senses we’ve covered so far, little credible conclusive research exists when it comes to a plant’s response to sound…"
“much of the research on plants and music (for example) has been carried out by High School students and amateur investigators.” The resulting discussion digs deeply into the question of what “Hearing” really means."
This is journalistic honesty, a rare virtue these days. That is what I like about this book. Chamovitz just presents the case from all sides without proselytizing. It also highlights the lack of credible science that is still needed on many important cannabis growing topics. We’re not the only ones plagued by fuzzy Bro-Science!
In the end, the book tends to come down pretty close to my own instinct regarding our favorite plant. Cannabis really does seem to be receptive to our close attention on multiple levels, but not always in the way you might think.
“We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden…” I don’t know if my grow room girls really like music, but when my Saintly Spouse captures the house sound system and queues up an evening with Joni Mitchell, they sure “Seem” to perk up!
This book is basically a catalog of what we know about “what plants know” based on every sensory input available to them. Some things a plant knows are more reliable than others but isn’t that the case with us as well?
“It ain’t what you know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so!” -Mark Twain
What A Plant Knows is a remedy for some of that.***
