A compression method for measurement of stress-relaxation proper- ties of the cell wall of storage tissues was developed, and the stress relaxation for the cell wall of Jerusalem artichoke tuber tissue was found to be represented by the equation
where S is stress, t is time and bp, Top, Tmp and cp are constants. A synthetic auxin, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, induced cell wall loosening represented by a decrease in Top prior to the induction of expansion growth. Auxin and gibberellin synergistically stimulated the increase in bp and the decrease in cp in 2–3 days.