Hi Don.

Can you provide some pictures?
what type of watering zone did you hook up into?

50' is definitly a little far for 1/4" drip tube. I love doing planter boxes and balcony pots. I would have done this run with 1/2" poly to get to the boxes. If you spend some time planning the route of the pipe, you might even find it possible to hid a lot of the run behind siding and trim. Once you are close to the boxes you can build a drip manifold and run your 1/4" tube, 2 to each box if needed.

You could also try using a bubbler or spray type emitter instead of a drip emitter, they put out much more water. However I'm not sure your 1/4" run is supplying enough water to make much of a difference, even if you took the emitters right off.