Tomato Rotation vs Spacing

[jmsieglaff]

Sorry for the length, but I wanted to be thorough.

My 2 main garden beds are 11'x4' and slightly raised (actually a touch over 11'). Starting in 2016, I decided to move all my peppers to buckets, continue with some tomatoes in buckets, but moving the peppers would free up an entire garden bed for more in-ground tomatoes. The other bed would be used for other vegetables. All beds have 5' cattle panels on the north ends for growing vertical crops.

My plan was to alternate which bed had which stuff every other year for soil disease purposes. I would fill a bed with 12 tomatoes spaced 24" apart (I've used this spacing for the past many years, with 6-8 plants. I use straw mulch in much of garden and always around the tomatoes.) But then I got to thinking, foliage diseases are my issues in southern Wisconsin--not soil diseases, so is rotation for tomatoes in my garden beds really necessary? Especially because I remove straw mulch and tomato plant each fall. If I didn't rotate my tomatoes I could greatly space the tomatoes. Specifically, 6 per bed and with the spaces in between with the other veggies.

Below are two schematics of what I'm describing above (spring snapshot, some of the other veggies get followed by other things when they are done). I'm curious what some experienced tomato growers think--in my southern Wisconsin location, am I better off with a tomato bed that gets rotated annually but has plants 24" apart. Or putting the tomatoes in the same spot, thereby offering very good airflow to each plant and hopefully limiting spread of any fungal issues that may come in on the rain?

The pros/cons of going to the later IMO:

Pros:
Wide spacing means good airflow.
Wide spacing means less tomato to tomato plant contact and less disease.
Tomato shadows could be good for summer lettuce, etc.

Cons:
No rotation--same spots get tomatoes each year. (I mix soil and constantly amend, so I don't think a nutrient issue will arise.)
The other veggies don't always get straw mulch and when one crop is done and another planted, there will be bare soil by the tomatoes, so there will be soil splash back with rains.
Tomato shadows could retard growth of in-between veggies.

One 2016-only inconvenience would be if I go to the 6 per bed, I'd need to move some of my garlic in the early spring that was planted this fall.

Thanks for reading the long thread. I'm curious to your thoughts.

Justin

Below:
First image (contains cartoons of 2 beds) is my current plan.
Second image is putting the tomatoes into 6 per bed. Tomatoes are denoted by the different color sun looking things.