To examine the ability of tender plants to adapt to stressful condition, they were exposed to water stress over a 7-d period. This resulted in a decrease in leaf water potential to approximately _2MPa(Figure7A). Tender plants did not perform as well as the plants that were grown under the unprotective environment as indicated by their slow shoot dry matter accumulation and leaf growth during this period (Figures 7B and C). As expected, water stress affected shoot growth in both groups of plants; however, the reduction in shoot biomass and leaf growth was much greater in tender plants than in the unprotective environment