• By contrast, stressed plants are much noisier, emitting an average up to around 40 clicks per hour depending on the species. And plants deprived of water have a noticeable sound profile. They start clicking more before they show visible signs of dehydrating, escalating as the plant grows more parched, before subsiding as the plant withers away.

    someone smarter than me should get to inventing a device that listens to plant clicks and tells you when it needs water

    • Rikudou_SageOPA
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      8512 days ago

      That’s actually mentioned as one possible use case further down the article!

    • edric
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      7512 days ago

      Might be a good use-case to have your home irrigation system be triggered by plant clicks instead of a schedule.

      • El Barto
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        12 days ago

        It could be. Although we don’t know how much those sounds indicate distress, and perhaps watering should happen much sooner.

        Imagine if aliens abduct you and give you food only when your stomach makes the kind of noise it makes after three days without eating anything, because “that’s all they can detect.”

          • El Barto
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            211 days ago

            We’ve already established that. But that method will shorten the life of the plant (and human.)

            • richmondez
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              211 days ago

              I dunno, calorie restrictions has tended to lengthen lifespan in other organisms we’ve tried it on.

              • El Barto
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                111 days ago

                Sure, but not to the point in which it’s a constant stress.

    • El Barto
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      12 days ago

      That idea is mentioned in the article, yes.

      Edit: apologies. The OP has already pointed this out.