Treble Tones Turn Out Top-Notch Tomatoes

Prince Charles talks to his plants. So do lots of gardeners, swearing that it encourages the plants to grow. Now it turns out that His Royal Highness was only half right.

Who's the best gabber for greenery? A study by the Royal Horticultural Society in the U.K. shows that women's voices speed up growth of tomato plants much more than men's. Even more telling, it seems that plants are most likely to sprout when they hear from the right people. According to an article in the U.K.'s Telegraph: "the most effective talk came from Sarah Darwin, whose great-great grandfather was legendary botanist Charles Darwin, one of the founding fathers of the RHS' Scientific Committee. She read a passage from On the Origin of Species and beat nine other 'voices'. Her plant grew nearly two inches taller than the best performing male and half an inch higher than her nearest competitor."

Sadly, no one knows quite why plants prefer women to men. But after a month of plant chatting, women on average saw their plants grow by an inch more than those catered to by men. In fact, according the article, "Some men were so bad that their plants actually grew less than a plant that was left completely alone. "