Water potential gradients drive water fluxes, while plant hydraulic traits modulate them, shaping ecosystem function. Yet, traditional methods for measuring plant water potential (e.g., pressure chambers) are destructive and labour-intensive, yielding sparse data with low temporal resolution. This contrasts with high-resolution environmental data (e.g., soil moisture, climate), creating a mismatch that limits our understanding of plant water dynamics. We address this gap by evaluating a novel microtensiometer for continuous stem water potential (y stem) monitoring. This collaborative study utilized data from 21 microtensiometers across three deciduous species ( Fagus sylvatica, Fraxinus excelsior, Carpinus betulus) and 31 soil matric potential sensors over the course of several months during the vegetation period of 2023. We demonstrate that microtensiometers deliver reliable results for the tested deciduous tree species. The microtensiometer measurements agree with the classical pressure chamber method in Fagus sylvatica and Carpinus betulus. By integrating high-frequency soil matric potential (y soil) data at multiple soil depths, meteorological variables, we further assessed the primary drivers of y stem across sites using boosted regression trees. The key driver of hourly y stem in this climatologically average summer, was species and y soil with upper soil layers exerting greater influence during the day and deeper layers becoming more important in the evening. These findings emphasize the potential of microtensiometers to advance plant hydraulics research by offering a continuous, cost-effective, and minimally invasive approach to monitoring water potential dynamics in forest ecosystems.