To this end, buriable waveguides were installed in the pots of 30 of the plants to record and store daily at 1200 h solar time the instantaneous volumetric water content of the soil using time domain reflectometry sensors (TDR Trase system technology; Model 6050X1, Soil Moisture Equipment Corp., Goleta, CA, USA). Moreover, on each sampling date (every Wednesday), the VSMC was recorded manually in the vicinity of all specimen and control plants.