Fig. 1

Soil moisture levels (ml water/100 mg soil) over time for optimally watered control (a) and experimental conditions during Experiment 1 of moderate spring drought (b), severe spring drought (c), moderate summer drought (d) and severe summer drought (e), and for the experimental conditions of Experiment 2 corresponding to early spring severe drought (f), late spring severe drought (g), rainfed (h) and control (i). In each plot, two average moisture levels of four individual plots are shown, for those harvested early (solid lines) and late (dotted lines). The periods of artificially induced drought are indicated in grey. The three arrows indicate the time of early harvest, late harvest and final harvest