To think that plants respond to emotions?

[funnylittlefloozie]

I am the least "woo" person ever. I do however talk to my houseplants, only semi-ironically.

When I lived with my alcoholic, unpleasant exH, in a big house with a conservatory, I walked on eggshells because of his moods and drinking. I was unhappy and anxious, and my house plants died within weeks. ExH liked to dig at me about this, insinuating that my inability to keep plants alive was on a par with my inability to keep the house clean, or anything else.

We split up. I now live in a much smaller house with my kind, loving, decent DP, and the house plants are thriving. Like, a bad throw in Jumanji thriving. I've had to stop buying plants because they are all doing so well.

Is it silly to think that my plants are happier because I'm happier?

YANBU - plants have emotions and feel pain in the same way that animals do. I mean, the physical structure is different, but the outcome - feelings of pain or sorrow or pleasure or joy - are the same. We can't grasp how plants feel pain in the same way a plant can't grasp how we can.

This is the reason people who refuse to eat meat on ethical grounds but are happy to eat vegetables are wrong. Just because a plant can't experience pain as we understand it doesn't mean they can't experience pain in a way we can't - they can and do suffer terribly.

So yes, a happy home is a good home for plants in the same way a child raised in an abusive home will grow up differently than if they'd been raised in a loving one.

YANBU - plants have emotions and feel pain in the same way that animals do.

No, they absolutely do not.

OP. You are in a different house, which might well affect how well the plants thrive. And you are happier, so may treat the plants differently. But plants are not sensitive to emotion.

Congratulations, by the way, on your new happier life.

Plants respond to stimuli. I could totally believe it if some plant biologist found that happy people breathe out x amount more carbon dioxide and moisture and this is good for plants, or that the reverberations from people yelling have a tiny-but-measurable effect on root growth, or whatever.

If you choose to see that as plants responding to emotion, I'd say that's a philosophical question. Is responding to a stimulus the same as having an emotion? How would we know? But then, we don't really know how people feel emotions either. It becomes a question of what you define as 'emotion'.

@ChainJane

YANBU - plants have emotions and feel pain in the same way that animals do. I mean, the physical structure is different, but the outcome - feelings of pain or sorrow or pleasure or joy - are the same. We can't grasp how plants feel pain in the same way a plant can't grasp how we can.

This is the reason people who refuse to eat meat on ethical grounds but are happy to eat vegetables are wrong. Just because a plant can't experience pain as we understand it doesn't mean they can't experience pain in a way we can't - they can and do suffer terribly.

So yes, a happy home is a good home for plants in the same way a child raised in an abusive home will grow up differently than if they'd been raised in a loving one.

I can’t work out if this is a joke or not. OP I’d say it’s more likely to be the new house. Different lighting, different temperatures, less drafty maybe

They respond to care and even though we don't realise it, we do a different care based on our emotinal state. Like with anything. When you are dperessed for example, personal hygiene may slide, so would care for plants.
And yes, different house.
It's also possible he did something to your plants btw

@ChainJane

YANBU - plants have emotions and feel pain in the same way that animals do. I mean, the physical structure is different, but the outcome - feelings of pain or sorrow or pleasure or joy - are the same. We can't grasp how plants feel pain in the same way a plant can't grasp how we can.

This is the reason people who refuse to eat meat on ethical grounds but are happy to eat vegetables are wrong. Just because a plant can't experience pain as we understand it doesn't mean they can't experience pain in a way we can't - they can and do suffer terribly.

So yes, a happy home is a good home for plants in the same way a child raised in an abusive home will grow up differently than if they'd been raised in a loving one.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ever seen on the subject of talking to your houseplants? Fast forward to 1:09 mins in…

Well I heard that if you're mean to chillies when growing them it makes them spicier.

I'm not sure if that means hitting them with a stick, depriving them of light and water, or if just calling them a cunt would do...

I wonder if you could experiment with three chili plants. One deprived, one beaten and one verbally abused.
Blind fold someone and make them guess which copped what.

Perhaps you've just learned how to care for plants well over the intervening years?

Glad you're in a good place now though (to add to your collection)

@Sparklfairy

Well I heard that if you're mean to chillies when growing them it makes them spicier.

I'm not sure if that means hitting them with a stick, depriving them of light and water, or if just calling them a cunt would do...

Oh no, I couldn't call a chilli a cunt. They're too delicious. Radish or green bean maybe.

@eatitgood

I wonder if you could experiment with three chili plants. One deprived, one beaten and one verbally abused. Blind fold someone and make them guess which copped what.

Haha! " This one has subtle overtones of neglect, with base stick beating notes"

Oh no, I couldn't call a chilli a cunt.
There is a type which is only known as "that green dickheads" in my household.
I run out of gloves and chopped them bastards bearhanded.
Hours. It took HOURS, milk wash, yogurt balm etc. My hand was on bloody fire.
Green bastards😂 I can come in and abuse the chili plants if anyone needs it. Wonder if zoom would be enough😂

Not sure I can afford to outsource chilli abuse just yet, but I'll bear you in mind for the future as you clearly have the necessary levels of vitriol 😂

Should make it a business.

Tasty Chili
-verbal plant abuse to make your harvest super tasty

Joking aside OP, I do think that plants are sensitive and will respond to positive emotions, in part for the reasons suggested by SchrodingersImmigrant.

And I'm pleased that you're in a happier home where you can thrive too!

@ChainJane

YANBU - plants have emotions and feel pain in the same way that animals do. I mean, the physical structure is different, but the outcome - feelings of pain or sorrow or pleasure or joy - are the same. We can't grasp how plants feel pain in the same way a plant can't grasp how we can.

This is the reason people who refuse to eat meat on ethical grounds but are happy to eat vegetables are wrong. Just because a plant can't experience pain as we understand it doesn't mean they can't experience pain in a way we can't - they can and do suffer terribly.

So yes, a happy home is a good home for plants in the same way a child raised in an abusive home will grow up differently than if they'd been raised in a loving one.

I can't think of this because I'd starve. as we understand it there was a time in history where sections of humanity were believed to be less than human, a time where people didn't believe animals had complex relationships.

@Talisin

Ever seen on the subject of talking to your houseplants? Fast forward to 1:09 mins in…

Good Omens is what gave me the idea of talking to them in the first place. I have a number of carnivorous plants as well, and they frequently get a good talking-to about my expectations of their insect-eating duties!

I haven't got a chilli plant. I might get one just to call it a cunt.

I haven't got a chilli plant. I might get one just to call it a cunt.

The hotter ones (Carolina Reapers etc) look really mean, like cantankerous wrinkly old men with no teeth. I like to think they've been bullied relentlessly and grown into evil psychopathic chillies.

I'm a chillihead and probably think about this stuff a little too much.