How many drippers per plant?

And what is the output of each?

And where is/are the dripper(s) placed?

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Most likely, 20 minutes on a drip, even though daily, is too little.

Check the soil -- put a finger in it -- to determine if it's wet or dry.

Forgive me if I sound overly blunt but your plant's problems are too many to go into great detail. Primarily it is your watering practices and your pruning practices.

1. daily shallow watering creates shallow rooted plants that are totally water-root dependent. They are weak with poorly developed circulatory systems and so very stressed and prone to any passing disease. Water needs to be delivered deeply and less frequency. Drip irrigation lines are ideal for that purpose but one has to understand how they work and how water disperses through soil. If using 1/2 GPH emitters then in 20 min. your plants only get about a pint of water. Depending on the make-up of your soil that can be as little as and inch deep. So it seldom even reaches down to root level of the plants. They have to come up to the surface to get water. Drip lines using 1/2 GPH emitters are intended to run for a minimum of 1 hour and if the soil is deep enough for 2 hours once ot twice every 4-7 days depending on climate. Your beds are not even filled all the way up. So how much actual soil do they have to work with?

2. why such aggressive pruning? Not only does it cost you all the production you would have had but it heavily stresses the plants and can cause stunting, pest and disease issues, nutrient circulation issues, heat tolerance issues, etc. Constructive pruning has a place in growing tomatoes but "snapping off all the suckers much less doing it all at the same time" (meaning some of them had already reached substantial size) is equivalent to butchering the plant and never necessary. So may I ask why?

So both plants now have very shallow roots, minimal production, and a severe case of grey mold. They aren't salvageable so take what you can from them in the way of fruit then pull and pitch them and plan to replace them for your fall tomato growing season. Fill the bed with a good mix, alter your watering regimen substantially, and cut WAY back on the aggressive pruning next time.

Hope this is of some help.

Dave

Hi Jean,

1 dripper per plant, placed at bottom of trunk (about an inch away). Not sure the output, system was in place when we moved. I will look into that next. thanks for the input.

Dave,

Not overly blunt at all. Appreciate the feedback. This is my first time doing this in years, so I'm using this season as a semi-refresher and learning a lot along the way.

1. Totally understood on the watering. I'm going to look into the output and change up my watering amounts and times. It may be too late for these two plants, but I assume my other veggies would appreciate the more water/less frequently. making that change now. Re: the amount of soil. I have added compost as well as planting mix but didn't think of adding more. When I planted the tomato's I was about to get down a foot or two in the soil. But I will add more mix to the bed.

2. I didn't realize I was supposed to prune in the first place - so when I realized the need to, I guess I went a little overboard. I had read about pruning on another site. lesson learned.

Very helpful and the very reason I posted this. Thanks

Mike

Doesn't matter what the output is if it isn't enough. Did you check the moisture status of the soil?

I bet it's dry.

Likely, you need more than one dripper per plant.