Firstly as the director of Sonic Bloom Australia I would like to thank the students and staff at Urrbrae Agricultural High School for taking the time to study the effects of Sonic Bloom.

As a quick explanation, Sonic Bloom is the synergistic effect of sound and a nutrient spray on the growth rate and yield of plants. The sound portion of the treatment utilises a high frequency noise, which has been shown to affect the metabolic rate of the plants. One observed effect is that it opens the stomates wider on the leaves, allowing faster gas and water exchange and also allowing the partnered nutrient spray to better enter the leaf through foliar feeding. Chinese research also concluded that it shafts the bio-electrical potential of the plants, creating more efficient routes for the electricity and thereby making the cell processes more efficient. Scanning electron microscope images suggest that plants treated with the Sonic Bloom process have a greater density of stomates and the stomata are better defined on the leaves.

This product is not new and over 20 years of research have gone into the current composition of the nutrient spray applied with the sound. The spray is not designed as a food replacement for the plants as you will see by the low N.P.K. analysis. It’s derived from sea kelp and chelated amino acids, derived from plant matter. It has been created and altered by Dan Carlson Snr., over the course of many years, based on study of the translocation of minor elements within the plant tissue. As you may be aware, sea kelp is full of naturally occurring plant hormones such as cytokinins and gibberellins which can enhance plant growth. The amino acids are added for balance and with the sea kelp extracts provide a range of over 70 trace elements, to assist the plants in coping with the increased growth rate. A study using irradiated Fe molecules demonstrated 716% greater translocation of the molecules within the plant, to the terminal node and the opposing leaf tissue, when the sound and Sonic Bloom spray were used together. Nutrient content of fruits and vegetables have consistently shown that plants exposed to Sonic Bloom have greatly increased quantities of important elements such as zinc, iron, vitamin C, protein content, potassium, chromium etc. Conversely heavy metals and pesticides are normally lower then normal, due to the plant's reduced reliance on its root system for feeding.  The diminshed reliance on root feeding results in less poisons being drawn into the plant through the soil and any contaminants it may hold.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE

As for the application of Sonic Bloom with your experiment, 7 total sprays for a crop from seedling to harvest is considered the optimum amount. Few effects are seen beyond 8 sprays, though 5 is an absolute minimum. Depending on the crop cycle of the plants you choose, it’s suggested that weekly sprays are applied for the first month once the seedling is a couple of inches tall, with fortnightly sprays applied thereafter until harvest; stopping at 7 or 8 total sprays. Any sprays or seed soaking that you do prior to the plant being a couple of inches in size is not counted toward the 7 or 8 spray total.

The sound can be applied daily, preferably from early in the morning for a total of 8 hours or at dusk if the day is very hot.  Plants should never be exposed to the sound if the temperature is around the mid thirties or higher, instead the sound is normally turned on in the late afternoon and allowed to play for 8 hours into the evening.  The sound is particularly important on the days that you spray, with the sound being applied for 45 minutes prior to spraying and then left for 8 hours after the spray. As a bare minimum, leave the sound going for 2 hours after spraying, only turning off the sound before 8 hours, if the day is going to be extremely hot.  The better alternative for spraying days that are going to be very hot, is to either spray in the evening or wait a day or two for a cooler day.

When spraying the plants, ensure the undersides of the leaves are given attention as this is where the greatest density of stomata reside. Having said this, the Sonic Bloom spray has been specially formulated to penetrate the waxy cuticle of the tops of the leaves, though the underside of the leaf is most important. The recommended dilution rate of the concentrate for spraying is 500:1 for very young plants, seeds and cuttings, up to 256:1 once the plant is at least a couple of inches tall. The diluted rate is one of the measuring spoons to 2 litres of water at 500:1 and one of the measuring spoons to 1 litre of water at 256:1.  This is assuming you use the entire spoon which holds 5ml of the concentrate.  The true measures would be 2ml per litre and 4ml per litre, however the measuring spoon is fine as an approximation.

SONIC DOOM

Finally you may have already asked yourself the question; "If the sound makes the plant feed through the leaves better, then can we use it with other sprays including herbicides?" If you asked this question then you are clever indeed! Firstly it is important not to use the sound with untested foliar sprays. Where a foliar spray is designed to feed the plant, there is often a much higher ratio of N.P.K. As you may be aware, high levels of these salts become poisonous to plants rather then beneficial. Growers have in the past tried the sound with more common foliar sprays and a good number of those applications have burned or killed the plants with a fatal build up of the salts. The Sonic Bloom formulation has deliberately kept various elements at low levels for this reason. It is not a complete food designed to replace fertilizing through the roots, however users can often cut back on fertilizers by around 50% with experimentation.

As for pesticides, studies have been completed regarding the ability of the sound to increase a plant’s uptake of herbicides. The average result is that only a quarter of the minimum recommended dose is required for the herbicide to effectively work! This in itself is a substantial cost saving and may also reduce the quantity of poisons and toxins used in agriculture, provided the sound unit is employed in conjunction with the herbicide. This may be another experiment you wish to attempt later.

As a final note, Sonic Bloom information is located on the web on 3 official sites:

• www.sonicbloom.com

• www.sonicbloominternational.com

• www.originalsonicbloom.com

These websites are in the process of being amalgamated so repetition exists with the content, though each site offers unique information.  This includes a collection of photographs, a video created by the Indonesian Department of Agriculture (a copy of which is included in your pack on the promotional CD) and articles on Sonic Bloom. There are a number of broken links to images and videos at the moment, though a lot of the content is operational. Unfortunately this is due to the fact that Dan Carlson Snr. suffered a stroke last year and is currently wheelchair bound, his son now picking up the pieces.  Dan Carlson Jnr. is working hard to reorganise the websites and get Sonic Bloom back out to the world to continue his father's vision.

Good luck Urrbrae and thank you once again for investigating the new world of Agro-Sonics!!!