A study looked at how different ways of giving water and nutrients to rockmelon plants affect their growth. They tested surface drip irrigation (water above roots) and subsurface drip irrigation (water directly to roots) on rockmelon plants. Surface drip irrigation made the plants grow faster than subsurface irrigation. Both methods were about 25% efficient in using water. The researchers wanted to see how the plants responded to these two watering techniques and found that the plants grew better when water was applied above the roots.