Plants – Why Ken’s Wrong

Plants are providing Ken Wheeler with new seeds of pseudoscience to plant in his readers’s minds. Find out why his notions about the effects of magnets and electricity on plant growth aren’t rooted in reality.

Our planet is home to at least 500,000 plant species. Scientists define plants as any multicellular organism with cellulose cell walls, no nervous system, no sensory organs and no ability to move.

Most, but not quite all, plants nourish themselves through the process of photosynthesis. As readers will recall from school, this is the means by which green plants use structures called chloroplasts to convert sunlight into glucose for nourishment and release oxygen into the atmosphere.

Plants differ from animals in having cell walls, producing their own food, their reproductive systems and their lack of mobility, among other traits. Plants are the foundation of most of our planet’s ecosystems, especially on land.

Plants are the Foundation of Agriculture

From our human perspective, plants are also the foundation of agriculture. We produce grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit and nuts for direct consumption.

We also use plants such as grasses, grains and legumes as fodder for livestock. Farmers also grow plants to support fibre production, for medicinal use and as biofuels.

Agriculture focuses on fostering soil health and fertility as well as irrigation and drainage. Farmers also devote a great deal of thought and attention to selecting the most productive plant crops for the land they manage, taking light and temperature into account.

Ken Has Embraced Odd Ideas About Plant Growth

Ken Wheeler has embraced some very odd and spurious ideas about plant growth. His epic gullibility has led him to subscribe to notions about applying magnets and/or electricity to plants to stimulate growth.

These dubious suppositions are called magneto-culture and electro-culture. They’re both rooted in pseudoscience, and the Angry Photographer’s interpretations of them are even more bizarre than the original conjectures.

For several years, the Theoria Apophasis host has been advising his viewers to use magnets to promote seed germination. He bases this theory on his notion that water is a “polar molecule.”

Ken Contradicts Himself on Magnetic Polarity

Although this claim is correct, it’s a very odd premise for Kentucky Ken to use in support of his conclusions. As we’ve noted under Magnetism – Why Ken’s Wrong, he frequently dismisses the polarity principle, declaring that there are no dualities in nature.

Despite this, when discussing magnetism and plants, Ken Wheeler goes describes magnets as “polar objects.” He says this despite having claimed in numerous other videos that magnets are “point source objects” that have no poles.

Readers who’ve perused Golden Ratio – Why Ken’s Wrong won’t be surprised to learn that part of this explanation draws on the relationship between the numbers 1 and φ.

Ken Incorrectly States Magnetic Poles Have “Phase Disparity”

The Angry Photographer incorrectly states that a magnet’s north and south poles have a “phase disparity” due to “compression and rarefaction” of the ether with the ratio of 1 to φ. As always, he offers no empirical evidence to support this claim.

Scientists have determined that a magnet’s poles are equal and opposite, so there’s no such ratio. As we explain in detail under Magnetism – Why Ken’s Wrong, the ether doesn’t exist, so it can’t have rarefactions or compressions. 

Since water is essential to life, and magnets and water are both polar, the Theoria Apophasis host deduces that “all living creatures are affected by magnetic fields.” Since he doesn’t show us what the polarity of a water molecule has to do a magnet’s north and south poles, this is a logical fallacy.

Plants Lack Structures to Respond to Magnetic Fields

Although some animals can detect and respond to magnetic fields, plants lack tissues that could sense or interact with a magnet. There’s no credible evidence that magnetic fields influence plants in any measurable way under normal growing conditions.

In particular, Ken Wheeler focuses on magnetic fields and seed germination. There’s no question that water is essential to this process.

Germination begins when a seed absorbs water, making it swell. Water activates enzymes that break down nutrients and it triggers metabolic activities like respiration to fuel the seed’s growth.

No Scientific Evidence That Magnets Influence Germination

None of this has anything to do with water molecules’ polarity. As for a magnet’s poles, there’s no legitimate scientific evidence from controlled experiments showing any significant influence of magnets on seed germination under normal growing conditions.

The Theoria Apophasis host periodically makes videos showing seeds sprouting in jars next to various kinds of magnets. These “experiments” never include a control group of similar seeds kept away from magnetic fields, so their results are meaningless.

More recently, Ken Wheeler has taken up another, related realm of pseudoscience. Electro-culture is the belief that electric currents enhance plant growth and crop yields.

No Experimental Evidence that Electricity Influences Plants

There’s no accepted experimental evidence that electricity increases plant growth or nutrient uptake. There’s also no explanation for how electricity could influence a plant’s development.

The Angry Photographer claims to have unearthed the required explanation. In his mind, the roots of a plant require light in much the same way as its leaves.

According to the Theoria Apophasis host, even though visible light can’t penetrate the ground, electricity stimulates a plant’s roots, enabling it to absorb more nutrients from the soil. He bases this notion on his discredited metaphysical geometry involving the hyperboloid and the torus, debunked under Magnetism – Why Ken’s Wrong.

Ken Falsely Claims Plants Are Symmetrical Above and Below

Kentucky Ken falsely claims that plants are symmetrical above and below the ground. The truth is that roots, especially fibrous root systems, spread radially, forming very different shapes than above-ground shoots reaching vertically toward the sun.

Besides, even if it were true that root systems and shoot systems were symmetrical (it’s not), that wouldn’t prove that roots need an underground sunlight substitute. The only justification Ken Wheeler offers for his notion is that electrifying the soil creates “sympathetic resonance” between the plant’s above-ground and below-ground physiologies

The expert consensus on electricity’s influence on plant roots is that it’s ineffective. Electric current doesn’t provide the energy required to emulate photosynthesis.

Roots Have No Structures to Respond to Electricity

Roots have no structures like chloroplasts to absorb or respond to electrical energy. Leaves have evolved in terms of size and shape to absorb light, while root structures show no adaptations for collecting electrical energy.

Like the various organs of our bodies, plant physiology includes diverse structures performing very different functions. Leaves absorb light energy while roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and none of this has anything to do with electricity or magnetism in normal growing conditions.

It’s unfortunate that the Angry Photographer insists on planting these ideas germinated by his fertile imagination into the unprepared soil of his readers’ minds. Hopefully, they’ll seek out more credible sources whose explanations are rooted in reality.

Ken’s Evidence:

Electroculture and Growth Secrets of Nature
Magnetic Secret of Growth Explained