Water evaporates from the mesophyll cells into air spaces in the leaf. If the air surrounding the leaf has less water vapour than the air in the intercellular spaces, water vapour will leave the leaf through stomata.
This process is called transpiration and will continue as long as the stomata are open and the air outside is not too humid. On dry, windy days when water vapour is continually diffusing out and being removed, transpiration will increase in rate.
Although this loss of water can cool the plant, it is essential that the plant does not lose too much water. Therefore water must be continuously supplied to the leaves. The xylem ensures that this happens.
Water is removed from the top of xylem vessels into the mesophyll cells down the water potential gradient. This removal of water from the xylem reduces the hydrostatic pressure exerted by the liquid so the pressure at the top is less than at the bottom. This pushes the water up the tube. The surface tension of the water molecules, the thin lumen of the xylem vessels and the attraction of the water molecules for the xylem vessel wall (adhesion), helps to keep the water flowing all the time and to keep the water column intact.
Pressure to push water up can also be increased from the bottom. By actively pumping minerals from cells surrounding the xylem into the xylem itself, more water is drawn into the xylem by osmosis.
This increase in water pressure, called root pressure, certainly helps in the process but is less important than the simple movement of water down the water potential gradient, ultimately from the soil at the bottom, to the air at the top. This is because moving water this way does not require energy (it is passive).
