Researchers from the Institute for Soil Sciences at the HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research developed a methodology for non-destructive monitoring of plant water uptake by measuring dielectric properties on a fine timescale under chamber conditions. Their results were published in the journal “Plant Methods” in open access form. The technique proved to be effective for real-time measurement of diurnal variation and environmental response of root activity. The observations confirmed the relationship between the detectable dielectric properties and the actual functional intensity of the root system.