Hi tim01824 and welcome to GardenWeb. I don't think you're going to like what bpgreen has suggested; however, it is the combined wisdom of the ages as compiled here at GW for the past decade. What he is suggesting is different from what you read in the magazines, books, and what you hear from the experts, but it is what works for the home owners that write in here. It is becoming more common to see people writing in here to say, "I finally raised my mower and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!" We have also seen, "I started to follow the 1-2-3 cultural practices and all my weeds went away. My neighbor's crabgrass grows right up to my lawn and stops at the border!" Bpgreen has the 1 and 2 laid out for you with watering and mowing. Number 3 is fertilizing. I fertilize with organic fertilizer on the federal holidays because they are easy to remember. I live in the pretty deep south so I start with Washington's Birthday. Next is Memorial Day (coming up), 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you use Scott's, you can skip the 4th of July because the chemical stress on the grass in the heat is too much. Daily watering is the single reason you have thatch (again, wisdom of the ages). A one-time app of too much fertilizer will not result in thatch. As you start to cut back on watering frequency, watch the grass carefully. Your roots are very shallow from the daily water.

Hi ionic, You might do better asking this question in the vegetable forum. It sounds like a growing concern. Not that irrigation guys don't know how to raise crops and couldn't answer your questions but the master gardeners are lurking on those forums. One item is that that you should check for any burst soaker hoses that would cause uneven irrigation more likely and be very noticeable. Check if your hoses is rated for your system pressure. If you find out what water you need to apply, we can help you apply it with consistency. You would need to find your pressure and flow rate. That's it for me. Aloha.

It is hard to look at a photo and diagnose just from the photo because we lack context since we know nothing of the particular weather conditions or whatever that these plants have been exposed to. So, here's my best shot at giving you a valid answer: you cannot necessarily tell the difference if you are not experienced in seeing fertilizer burn, which I am not since I only use very mild, very gentle, very low-number organic fertilizers for tomato plants. I've never given my tomato plants enough fertilizer to harm them, and I'm over 60s years old and have been gardening since I was a child. What you do now is you leave your poor plants alone and let them recover. You're on the verge of what we experienced gardeners call "loving your plants to death", which basically refers to an overly attentive gardener trying too hard to do too much in too short of a time frame. Try to back off on everything except water and light and just let the plants be. Phosphorus deficiency is not uncommon on seedlings as young as yours. To be honest, if mine show that purpling early in their lives, I just ignore it because I know it will go away as they grow and become better able to take up and use the phosphorus in the soil. Often, the purple foliage early in their lives happens just because they are too immature to take up and use phosphorus efficiently when they are that small. Exposure to cooler temperatures (below 60 degrees) also can cause the purple discoloration and it goes away when the temperatures improve. Try to avoid overthinking and over-reacting, and try to avoid over-feeding your plants. I raise tomato seedlings from seed to transplant size (6 weeks) and only feed them once or twice during that six weeks, usually with something very low in NPK, like liquid seaweed or Neptune's Harvest (liquid seaweed plus kelp). My plants do fine on low-dose feedings, grow quickly once transplanted into the garden, and produce huge loads of fruit. When I was younger and fed them more often, I had huge plants that produced only moderate loads of fruit. I had to learn to leave them alone and to stop feeding them too much. Feeding them less, especially less nitrogen, gives me more fruit. Most soils (as least here in OK, if you are here in OK) have plentiful phosphorus so that is not even a concern once I put plants in the ground. Contrary to popular opinion, tomato plants do not have to be fed heavily, especially at a young age, in order to grow and do well. I see people do more harm to their plants with too many feedings than with not enough. Good luck with your plants.

My blueberries now have a netted cage around them. The catbirds were eating them all last year. A few days ago some cedar waxwings were on them and quickly polished off most of the green berries on one of the plants ;( We rushed to put the PLASTIC mesh netting up. I'd read that birds can get caught in the finer monofilament netting, so went with the heavy plastic stuff. It's so much fun to watch the catbirds bounce of it and finally give up. They learned quickly. I've got 5 plants in the ground, and four in pots. All get watered daily because the "soil" is lean loam with organic matter, but only about 7 inches deep over what is essentially gravel. I fertilized with Epsoma Holly Tone in April. Question: because the soil is so lean and sandy, should I fertilize again with a bit of Holy Tone? It's too late for me to replant or add leaf mold or peat moss. Because I am watering daily, they do have some new growth, but the soil is so sandy, I'm concerned that I will lose the new shoots just as I have in the past. I have some wood chips over the soil, probably not thick enough. I'll include a photo of the netted cage. We used 2x3" furring strips because the area was uneven and PVC was more expensive than the wood. The plastic netting is great, but a few suggestions. Leave some on the ground at the bottom. The chipmunks don't seem to like the feel of it. I watched one try to get in, then it gave up after about 5 attempts. I hope he doesn't return to chew through it <fingers crossed>. DH put the netting on in the evening. The next day, the hot sun caused it to sag a bit. You might want to keep that in mind if you used the heavy plastic mesh. Tractor Supply had it.