There are quite a few tomatoes that do well here, the most important thing to maybe remember is.. days to harvest.. shorter harvest days obviously means, you will end up with more tomatoes when is all said and done. But sometimes you just cant beat a brandywine or beefsteak type tomato. Be prepared to wait 80+ days (sometimes in the 70ish range) to pick those beasts. Siberian and san francisco fog are good seeds to start, they are more cold tolerant then alot of varieties, which means you can get em in the ground earlier, they also mature early. Olives, sweet 100's or million's, Lrg Red cherries, all do well, and would be up to you. You'll find what works best for you by trial and error :) There is a nursery in the "arcadia area"(not sure im allowed to put a name down) that usually has a great selection of varieties ;) tips from my experience in growing tomatoes... -inconsistant waterings can lead to cracks on fruit. So don't forget to check moisture, evenly moist at all times, but not sopping wet like a sponge full of water. Remember there is no schedule to water, you water when the plants need it. Weather, humidity, and soil structure will determine a "schedule" for you. -calcium, do not worry about it, our soil has it, if you are unsure, get a soil test to determine if needed. -To establish more of a root structure, and you have plants already started, try stripping the leaves almost half way up, including side shoots at leaf stem base, and planting it up to where the leaves you didn't strip are. Tomatoes develop very adventurous roots from the stem. -Once the tomatoes get some height to them, i like to strip some of the older leaves at the bottom of the plant to allow air circulation through the plant, and prevent stangnant air and fungi build up. -If growing indeterminate tomatoes (grow and produce fruit until killed by frost) a tomato cage usually wont cut it, think bigger, and know that it will want to grow like a vine. -If growing a determinate variety (grow to a certain height, bloom, fruit, ripen all at once, and then usually dies, or will notice decreased vigor in plant usually) You will notice they tend to be more upright and bushy, usually max would be 4' or smaller depending on variety, and you wouldn't need a cage necessarily. -Tomatoes are hungry plants,so feed regularly, and not when you happen to remember to fertilize them. -High alkalinity in the soil and water CAN create an environment in the soil where a plant can't uptake certain nutrients, so try to keep the pH reasonable by adding compost, and organic type fertilizers. -Rotate your tomato beds every year, a build-up of harmful organisms can be bad for next years crop of tomatoes. (wont get scientific, google can help ya with that.)

toucan I cannot imagine how you'd grow that many tomato plants vertically, though it would be great if it were possible. If you could get containers and somehow suspend them (I'm thinking of 5-gallon buckets for determinates to grow upright in them), you might be able to manage some that way.

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Hi Mary! Thank you so much for all the info and for taking the time to write! Its really uplifting to have someone in town who truly understand what it takes to garden in Phx and your guidance has already been helpful in so many ways, so thank you! I've heard from so many that doing the garden in Phoenix is looking for added headaches, not an easy process, specially coming from the Northeast. Anyways, I think what really pushed me to start doing my raised bed was to find a nice, healthy project to do while being in quarantine. I have two girls, 3 and 6 that would benefit from doing this together, so I thought its an overall win despite the difficulties. I will say that I thought I knew that I was starting late in the season with this project by having the bed fully built by April 19, and that was the day I planted the few plants recommended by my local Lowes, (Cherry Tomatoes,Zucchini, cucumber & mint). Later on, we planted from seed carrot and potato, both doing beautiful until last week the potato as well as the cherry tomatoes started showing the curl leafs I showed you earlier. So, that was the first challenge I encounter, and later that week I tried to plant two green tomatoes plants to fulfill two empty spots I had and both died within a few days... So I am still learning and there is definitely a learning curve to this. Also, right before the heat wave from last week, I finish the irrigation system to water the raised bed from (manual hose watering straight to the roots) to now, a 6 inches apart dripping through my timer controller. I am very excited about this improvement but for sure, your suggestion to use the moisture meter will become handy, because I'm unsure how much water are my plants really getting within 25-30 minutes every morning, I'm getting the meter today! I would love if I get to see our plants give us some produce, even though I'm a little afraid the cherry tomatoes and the potato plants might be in trouble without much understanding yet on what the cause might be... This morning I was trying to look up close the the cherry tomatoes, see if I find insects or anything that might be able to discard as an option, and couldn't find anything, but a few leafs did show little black dots, up to 8 in some of the leafs, they didn't move so they dont look like insects, but could be caterpillar poop, which I have found couple caterpillar in the past weeks and moved them somewhere else farther away from my garden. Not even sure how they came along, do they come within the soil I bought? Anyways, Im impressed with your setup, thank you for sharing! I haven't even started doing my own compost, I find it challenging, and a bit overwhelming, since I am still taking baby steps, but I am very intrigued how you transition the wigglers from one bedding to the next. Doesn't sound easy. To start my raised bed I fill the bottom half with dried leafs, branches and yard soil and then I used garden soil purchased at Lowes for the top half. Plants seemed to enjoy it since they were growing fast and healthy. I will have to do further research on all the steps you are currently applying in your garden, so gain a bit more confidence and understanding on the how to and benefits. Here is a link so you can see my raised bed since the beginning to where it is right now. https://photos.app.goo.gl/RGytgdz8hzwCjYts5 Thank you again as always!