So Charles was right - you should talk to plants, scientists discover

But it seems Charles, who first mentioned his activities in a muchderided 1986 television interview, might have been on to something after all.

A study suggests talking to plants could encourage them to grow.

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Researchers exposed rice plants to noise while they monitored levels of gene activity.

Using 14 pieces of classical music, they were astonished to discover the noise triggered a response in two genes, rbcS and Ald.

Some frequencies made the genes more active, while others made them subdued.

Because the genes are known to be involved in the plant's response to light, the scientists repeated the experiments in the dark.

But the study, reported in today's New Scientist, found this made no difference to how the genes behaved.

The reason why and how plants might react to sound is unclear.

It is possible that certain types of sound wave interfere with the normal behaviour of plant genes.

Genetics experts, however, are at a loss to explain what benefits 'hearing' could offer to plants.

The scientists, from South Korea's National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, hope their results could be used to help farmers.

Genetically modified plants could be grown which farmers could control - for instance to make them flower - by blasting sounds across their fields.

The claims, in the journal Molecular Breeding, have been greeted with scepticism by plant experts.

Dr Philip Wigge, of the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, said the researchers used dated techniques and took too few samples.

Even if sound did trigger genetic changes in a plant, it might be impractical to use in farms.

Wind also affects at least one of the 'sound-sensitive' genes, which might drown out the effect of blasting crops with noise.

Plants already have an armoury of senses to help protect them against predators, disease and the weather.

All plants react to light, with sunflowers tracking the movement of the sun across the sky every day.

Others 'feel' strong winds and stiffen themselves against buffeting.

Maize reacts to the 'taste' of a particular caterpillar saliva by releasing a scent to attract a parasitic wasp.

The wasp lays its eggs inside caterpillars, which hatch and destroy the host from within.

Injured tomato plants can even 'talk' to other plants by releasing a chemical warning signal into the air.

Any tomato plants in the vicinity respond to the signal by releasing their own chemicals to deter attackers or attract insect predators.