  We consider the behaviour of a quintessence field during an inflationary
epoch, in order to learn how inflation influences the likely initial conditions
for quintessence. We use the stochastic inflation formalism to study quantum
fluctuations induced in the quintessence field during the early stages of
inflation, and conclude that these drive its mean to large values (> 0.1
m_{Planck}). Consequently we find that tracker behaviour typically starts at
low redshift, long after nucleosynthesis and most likely also after decoupling.
