Recent results showing a crystallographic orientation dependence of growth kinetics, secondary defects, and stress relief in annealing of ion‐implanted Si are shown to be self‐consistent if interpreted in terms of the influence of stresses upon annealing processes. The stress influence proposed is microplastic shear which is induced in [112] directions on (111) planes inclined to the implant surface by the biaxial stress created in the implant region by ion‐implantation damage. The shear stresses are shown to be dependent on crystallographic orientation in a manner consistent with the model.