Is this one of the self-watering bucket set-ups you see on the web or just a plain old 5 gallon bucket? "Bucket garden" can mean many different things.

What leads you to believe it has been over-watered? How much and how often have you watered it? What is the growing mix in the bucket? Plant symptoms? Photo?

We need much more information to answer your question.

Dave

I got the over watering under control,... Now the roots have totally rooted throughout the whole bucket & are actually rooting down into this hard GA. clay... They look worse & some are dying fast!! I'm very stubborn & committed to having some fresh tomatoes... They are 4 to 5 feet tall. I'm thinking about very carefully repotting them in my raised bed...They didn't do this last year. Guess I have one heck of a root system going... They have run out of room to root... Gonna try to save the best ones left...I know, a bunch more work, but I have the time & next year I will just plant them in an EXTREMELY WELL PREPARED GARDEN/ SOIL!!!! Any ideas besides my crazy work a holic self? Lol...Thought 1 more idea...Cut buckets at least 1/2 way up before transplanting them into raised bed... At least it's cooler & cloudy today...Thanks in advance...

Regular old buckets... I did the same thing as last year & they were great... Got the watering under control & now they are some are dying now b/c the root system has out rooted the 5 gallon buckets & I couldn't believe it when I tilted the buckets to look under that the roots are actually rooting into this red hard GA. clay... Alot of work to do, but stubborness is taking over & now I'm going to try to cut the buckets & plant them in my raised bed... Heck, at this point I really have nothing to lose but my time... Last year was NO PROBLEMS!!!! Would love to have about 5 of me to get all this done... Lol... Between my bucket garden, raised bed, Pole & Bush beans ( growing great in the clay,

There might be other causes/reason for what is happening besides the watering issue.

In 5 gallon bucket you can keep them going even if they get root bound.

A few pictures might be helpful .

Sey

I read in another forum not to put rocks in the bottom of the buckets...I did last year & between tomatoes & 1 banana pepper plant, It was CRAZY how many that 1 pepper plant produced...I was giving them to everyone that walked by my house!! It's been SOOOO hot also....I moved them to another sunny, but not to where they will have 10 hours of sun just scalding them...The vegetables that I planted in this Ga. clay are doing better than anything else...Go figure...One exception, 1 of our bean patches were mowed down by deer...It will be a dead deer if we catch it at our gardens again...This was after trying to deer proof with some ideas off here & paying big bucks for deer repellant...WASTE OF MONEY...We have worked too hard & replanted to have this happen again...Learned the hard way...Guess this Ga. clay isn't as bad as we thought...Our daddy's did fine back in the day...But, that sevin dust almost did them in right from the start...Using Hort Oil now...Wish our daddy's were here to give us advice...We were told that everyone around here are having bad luck with tomatoes this year...This hort oil...well, it's driving me crazier b/c it seems like all I do is spray even though we put the RIGHT stuff in our gardens that are fine for vegetables to kill all of the ANT INVASIONS....We just have too many irons in the fire....Hopefully we have learned alot for next year...