Zinia,

I've read that tomatoes planted in soybean litter will be inhibited from flowering properly due to enzyme interaction of some sort. I don't remember the details and don't know whether it would apply to tomatoes planted with growing soybeans. You might want to check into this more.

You can mulch your tomato bed to prevent weeds and can shade them with shade cloth if excessive sunlight is an issue.

And there are other cover crops for tomatoes standard to employ in a no-till application. Google "no till tomatoes" for articles.

Thank you,
I'm glad to know about the soybeans. I googled no-til tomatoes and am now inspired to leave the rye strip in place (which isn't a very thick stand) and plant tomatoes directly through it. Will use a hole digger to lift a core of dirt out and mix a cup of lime and a cup of plant tone or garden tone. last year I did that except with lime and 10-10-10 and did not have blossom end rot because of the lime. I may go ahead and do the cores as soon as the weather and soil is dryer just to have the holes limed good and maybe the soil in better condition. After the tomatoes are planted, I'll probably place bottomless metal cans beside each tomato as a watering reservoir. We have a lot of leaves that can be used as free mulch.
Thanks,
zinia

Eliot Coleman goes into great detail on underplanting combos in " The New Organic Grower". Now if I could just find my copy...