i was taught (on here) to water deep. stick your finger in the soil 6 inches and water til its wet 6 inches down. water deep once daily. i usually do each vine(i have 3) for 2 minutes

i agree, in your other post you said that you sprayed for 45 seconds the only thing you are doing is wetting the top 2 inches of soil. deep watering in the morning will last all day.

The expert at GardenWorld said 45 seconds was too long to water each plant. I should only water them each for 20 seconds a day. It's so sad to see the three pumpkin plants wilting and dying while my watermelon plant is thriving with 3 watermelons! And I water them all exactly the same.

You are just wetting the leaves if you water for 20 or 45 seconds ... The key is that the water needs to soak in. Also since pumpkins send down roots at the base of each leaf water the entire plant not just the base where you planted the seeds. I have soaker hoses as well. But when I water from overhead I water each plant until the water starts to puddle then move to the next. And I do that 4 or 5 times for each plant, by the time I get back to where I started watering the water has soaked in and I go again until I see it puddling. The reason you stop when you see puddles is because if the water is collecting at the surface you are no longer successfully watering, you are just creating runoff that flows away from the plants and doesn't wet the roots. 20 or 45 seconds might work in a container where there rim of the pot contains the water and it is able to all soak straight down but it is absurd for plants grown in the ground.

Weirdtrev that's exactly what I do except I only have one plant, but it's big. So I just hose down the whole plant(with miracle grow liquid feeder nozil) and I then when I am done I come back with a gallon or two sized misting apparatus filled with fungicide and a tiny bit more fertilizer and try to wet as much of the plant as I can with that.

Each plant is on a small mound of dirt. When I water one plant for 45 seconds, the "moat" around it puddles and it takes 5 minutes to soak in. Does that mean anything?