Bucketgirl forever? No way. :) Apparently you have been reading about crop rotation. But keep in mind that it is primarily for commercial growers.

Millions of home gardeners have no way or room to rotate their crops and do just fine. Otherwise we would all be stuck in the buckets.

Of course if you can rotate, even move them over to the other side of the bed on alternate years, great. But as long as you amend your soil really well between seasons and maintain good garden hygiene there are few problems. Many of us garden in the same spot and have for many years with no issues simply because we add lots of high quality compost to our beds 2x a year. The beneficial bacteria in good compost goes a long way toward elimination of the bad guys in the soil.

So what you need to be reading about is soil amending, composting, and proper soil maintaining. The Soil & Composting forum here is a good place to start.

And if you will type 'crop rotation' in the search box at the bottom of the forum page you'll find many previous discussions to read too.

Dave

+1
I have been growing tomatoes in the same beds for the last 10+yrs. Keep in mind that tomatoes can & do get a variety of leaf problems. I don't worry about those esp. since they don't affect the fruit or kill the plant.

I talk to people all the time who feel compelled to have the perfect tomato plant. I don't worry about perfect. IF the leaf has spots on it, pinch it off and dispose of it.

Spraying chemicals just adds to the cost of the tomatoes.

I'm nodding my head here gumby.....I just want the fruit and prefer to avoid introducing chemicals to the mix. I've been 'creating' my 4'x6' beds for 4 seasons now and the soil is just getting opitimal. Lots of compost - both my own and commercially from bulk garden soil providers, not invididual plastic bags, but I have an old farm truck to haul garden paraphenalia - and the 'garden soil' mix sold by the bulk providers. We just got 1/2 yard for just under $16. I stage it under a tree wheelbarrow to where I need it.

Got tomatillo's??

Happy Gardening - I love spring in Phoenix!

I plan on adding two more 4x8 raised beds and a lettuce ladder in the next couple of weeks. For the beds, I'm fastening together cedar fence pickets, probably with PVC corners so I can put on a shade. Getting kind of late to plant out tomatoes here and I just started more seeds. I've heard of others in my area getting a summer season extension with shade, so here goes!

I won't be rotating much, if at all, since I'm primarily growing greens and tomatoes.

Where in zone 9 are you? I have horrible results with buckets, but I'm lazy and forgetful. Not traits conducive to successful container gardening, especially in Houston!

Thanks for all the input! I am doing 1/2 in the bed and 1/2 in the buckets. this will help me compare.

Niallalea,
I'm in San Jose, CA. I have never grown tomatoes before, so I couldn't compare. But I had great luck. I have almost too much sun and some of the fruit seemed to get burned or bleached. My raised bed is in a little less intense area of the yard. Here is a picture of the home bucket garden! I used 1/2 potting mix and 1/2 manure compost, some fertilizing on a regular basis with fish emulsion and ? I think something else, cannot remember. I had tomatoes through to November almost.

That is a nice setup!! And some nice looking plants! That's exactly what I want to do with some of mine. I was trying to decide between SWC buckets and ones placed on the ground - I read the ones with ground contact are more forgiving because they act more like raised beds. I think I will try it, since I'm gonna have more plants than beds. :)