2.01 WHAT IS PLANT HEALTH?

In their exposition of the term “plant health”, Döring et al. (2012) conclude that “there is no single plant health definition that provides satisfying clarity and consistence.” It is a “fuzzy” term that, if it is to remain of value, requires more context in its definition than can be given in a simple dictionary type definition. This notwithstanding, it is useful to here adopt the possibly outdated, definitely circular definition of plant health as the plant being “free from” particular things. For the plant health dimensions discussed below, in the context of this thesis, it is generally the case that less of that dimension will have been shown to result in a higher level of storability.