Applying Plant Hydraulic Physiology Methods to Investigate Desiccation During Prolonged Cold Storage of Horticultural Trees.

Plant nursery production systems are a multi-billion-dollar, international, and horticultural industry that depends on storing and shipping live plants. The storage environment represents potentially desiccating and even fatal conditions for dormant, bareroot, and deciduous horticulture crops, like orchard trees, forestry trees, ornamental trees, and grapevines. When tree mortality is considered within a plant hydraulic framework, plants experiencing water stress are thought to ultimately die from hydraulic failure or carbon starvation.