Dan Carlson believes he has figured out how to make plants grow like weeds.

Carlson, a self-employed plant-breeding scientist from Blaine, uses high-frequency sounds and an organic spray of 55 trace minerals and amino acids in a process called Sonic Bloom. He says that it’s being used in 30 states and 7 countries, and that several universities are testing it.

Carlson says his process is a scientific breakthrough that could help solve the world hunger problem.

"As a scientist, I’ve invented indeterminate growth," he said. "That’s a hell of statement to make. The scientific community gets rather rocked when it hears that."

Carlson’s first success was a houseplant that grew into the Guinness Book of World Records. It was a Purple Passion, which normally grows about 18 inches. Treated with Sonic Bloom, Carlson’s plant reached 600 feet.

The 17-year-old plant eventually grew to 1,300 feet, before horseplay by two of Carlson’s children caused it to be pruned back by 1,280 feet when it got wrapped into the kitchen ceiling fan, he said.

In the meantime:

· Save The Children, a nonprofit relief agency, has planted crops grown from seeds treated with the product.

· C. Itoh America, a Japanese corporation with offices in Los Angeles, is negotiating a multi-million dollar, five-year contract to use the process in Japan.

· Farmers in 30 states and seven foreign countries testify that Sonic Bloom improves yields.

The process is being manufactured for houseplants, vegetables, trees, flowers, and farm crops by Dan Carlson Scientific Enterprises, Inc., at Carlson’s home, 708 – 119^th Lane N.E.

Among the Minnesota farmers touting Sonic Bloom is Gerald Scheuerer of Nicollet, Minnesota, a farmer for 25 years. "We had one of our best crops ever last year," he said.

Scheuerer said that in order to cut costs, he didn’t use the product this season. "We are down this year, so we felt it did help a lot," he said. "Next year we are going to use some; that’s for sure."

The concentrate costs about $50 an acre per season for farmers, plus a $200 annual leasing fee for the oscillating high-frequency sound unit. The home kit, which includes a cassette tape, is $30.

Patents are pending for the product and Carlson’s process in the United States. But the product and process already have been patented in Japan, Canada, Spain, Jordan, Lebanon, Australia, and New Zealand, according to one of Carlson’s attorneys, Donna Johnson of St. Paul.

Carlson said he believes that his technique, which works on plants in poor soil, high temperatures, and sparse rainfall, could eradicate world hunger.

An agricultural project in New Mexico has successfully used Sonic Bloom to treat ancient drought-resistant seeds, said Lynnwood Brown, community planner for the project.

"It’s a good product and we think it has a lot of promise," said Brown. "In many crops – corn, amaranth, tomatoes, beets, carrots – there were substantial increases in yields."

The New Mexico project has supplied Save the Children with treated seeds for use in drought-stricken parts of East Africa.

Carlson said his interest in eliminating hunger stems from his service as an Army border guard in South Korea from 1961 through 1963. He said he is still haunted by the eyes of a Korean woman he caught placing her child under the wheels of an Army truck.

"I went over to strike the woman and realized . . . she was terrified; this was a necessary act. She did it out of starvation. She and her child were starving to death."

On the spot, Carlson said, "I dedicated my life to solving the problem of world hunger. I enrolled in the University of Minnesota as soon as I was discharged. It took me 13 years to get my degree. I wasn’t a real good student."

He graduated in 1975 and earned a living as an auto mechanic while researching and experimenting with growth stimulants such as gibberellic acid. His breakthrough came in 1972 when he discovered that certain sound levels would stimulate plants to absorb more nutrients if they were sprayed on the foliage.

"I read a book that said when plants heard sound, a 3,000-cycle hum, they seemed to open their mouths, they breathed better and got healthier." To get the plants to do that, he developed a high-pitched blend of sounds from nature and music. The sound makes weeds absorb more, too. But after about a year of using Sonic Bloom, Carlson said, weeds die because the soil becomes more balanced.

The cassette tape for home use features lyres and sitars playing soothing background music for the uninterrupted tweeting and squeaking of the world’s happiest birds and crickets. The sound box available to farmers excludes the lyres and sitars.

With a product and process in hand in 1976, "I went all around the country to the deserts in Arizona and California and the tropical rain forests in Hawaii and sprayed everything we could for nothing," Carlson said.

"I believe he has a breakthrough," said Takashi Fikuda, manager of the provisions department for C. Itoh America in Los Angeles. The trading corporation is negotiating to use Sonic Bloom in Japan, where a cantaloupe costs $30.

Although Fukuda said he believes in Sonic Bloom, he added, "One problem is how to make other people believe it. It takes a long time to prove this. Years."

A grant from the Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, is being sought to give Sonic Bloom scientific credence. Thelma Carlysle, a former researcher for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said she is working with Carlson to get the grant. "We know it works," Carlysle said from her home in Gainesville, Florida. "There is evidence some marvelous things are happening, but it is going to have to be approached scientifically."

-- Minneapolis Star & Tribune, September 2, 1986