This might be a silly question but is that three gallons of water per plant every other day, or three gallons of water for all plants? I haven't used drip lines so I just want to be clear.

The drip lines are rated by the amount of water they put out. In this case, the emitters in my drip line put out roughly a gallon an hour, and actually, each grow bag has two emitters dripping into it. So each grow bag gets roughly six gallons of water every other day. That does sound like a lot, doesn't it? But the soil in the bags never seems overly saturated, and like I said, shows up as borderline dry on my moisture meter the next day.

Well I have no experience with moisture meters either, and I'm no expert, but that sounds like a massive amount of water to provide per container, especially for plants that are either starting to grow at the beginning of the season or stalling midseason. I would guess the problem is overwatering, and that the roots have been drowning and underdeveloped from the start.

In my experience, the only time container tomatoes have ever needed anywhere close to 3 gallons/day is when they are fully grown with lots of foliage and fruit in very hot conditions.

My guess is that all the nutrients are being washed out with all of that water. Why not water every day with less water? I water my containers twice a day when it's very hot.

Linda

Ours are in ground and they are watered daily for about 20 min. I'm thinking the same as @labradogs

Well, it's certainly worth a try. I'm paying for every drop of water, so less is definitely better if it'll make the plants happy.

They like consistent water, so less daily is more!