The reason I mentioned too much water is bad too is because I did that a few times this yr so far. the bottom leaves turned yellow and fell off I dug dwn w/ trowel to find it was saturated. I was drowning the poor things. So best to water 1ce or twice a week but very deep watering!!! I don't have sprinkler I water by hand/ Hose and even that way it takes about 20 min's or so. And remember don't just water the hill or the surrounding dry soil will steal (wick) all the water! Make sure the soil is wet all over the whole area
Next yr you can try growing some of the Powdery Mildew Resistant varieties I'm growing c. Max this yr and am trying Bylinka its suppose to be PMR I'll let you know at the end of the season if it survived PM
(its not on this list for some reason)
http://garden.org/plants/searc...
Its not letting me post the link so chk boxes in this search that say vine, vegetable and Powdery Mildew resistant don't chk any other boxes and it'll give you the list
