Tomatoes and potatoes

[gfrederickk]

Good morning. I'm planning my vegetable garden for 2023, and I'm thinking about adding a section where I'll grow potatoes in 5-gallon buckets. I'm worried this addition of potatoes will add risk of blight and/or aphids to my tomatoes. Does anyone here grow both tomatoes and potatoes in their garden. Any advice? Can you tell me how far apart I should keep the potato buckets from the tomatoes, which will be planted in the ground? Or should I simply not plant the two in the same garden.
Thank you for any advice you can offer.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have not had any problems, but I do think I would do it the other way around and put the potatoes in the ground and tomatoes in the buckets. The potatoes like a good deep layer of moisture retaining material like leaf mould, or even paper and almost raw compost, you can mulch them heavily with grass cuttings, all in all they are good for improving the soil. The tomatoes may benefit from being able to move them into the sun or out of the wind depending how the weather goes, and tend to take more from the soil than gets put in. A nice rich compost can get lost in the ground in a way it wouldn't in a container.

 

[headfullofbees]

Don't mix them, that's all the precaution I take.

 

[Meadowlark]

... Does anyone here grow both tomatoes and potatoes in their garden. Any advice? ..

Yes, and have done so for several decades without any problems. I do rotate plantings of both and avoid planting them in the same location for 3 years. I also continuously rejuvenate the soil with extensive use of cover crops all year around.