Water relations in the culture vessel

As for plants growing under normal environmental conditions, the water relations are also the most important factor controlling long distance transport in tissue cultured plants. Moreover, the confined atmosphere of a tissue culture container creates supplementary problems. Special approaches (controlled ventilation, condensation,..) are needed to avoid specific physiological problems (a.o. hyperhydricity). With roses as experimental material, we used tritiated water to study the water fluxes in a tissue culture container. Considerable amounts of water pass through the shoots. Quantified data will be presented, as well as factors influencing the amount of transport.