Tomatoes, Sunlight + Mirrors? Help!

[seashells]

I'm pretty new to gardening, am limited with the amount of sunlight I can get because I live in an apartment building with limited space outside. But I've been trying my hand at "upside down"/hanging tomato plants and have to admit, I don't know much!

I've been doing a kind of experiment with three different tomato plants.

1 plant: in complete, regular sun
1 plant: in the shade with sun provided by a "Sunflower Home Heliostat" (it's basically a mirror that has a sun tracker so it can provide consistent sunlight all day)
1 plant: gets afternoon sun but is otherwise in the shade

What I've found is the regular sun and mirror plant have flowered at about the same rate, and the fruit itself has grown at about the same rate -- but the mirror ones are actually quite a bit larger. I'm not sure if this is due to the more consistent sunlight or if it might have to do with, maybe, the amount of fertilizer the plants are receiving (the one with the mirror is farther away from my building so it doesnt have runoff from the roof pouring through it in the rain), or maybe even pollination for the plants, because they're in a slightly different locations so maybe the access to them by bees or something varies enough? Maybe I'm just over thinking things... And then the plant that only gets afternoon sun, I've been struggling with overall .

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on:
1. using mirrors to increase sunlight to plants in general and on tomatoes specifically
2. how much sunlight tomato plants actually need
3. how much fertilizer should I be using? if anything?

And just if any experienced tomato growers might have any explanations as to the results I've been experiencing.

I'd appreciate any thoughts/explanations/comments. Thank you!!

[Bobberman]

Put some prlite on the tops of the dirt n the containers to reflect light to the under sides of the leaves! Anything white will reflect light anywhere near the plans !

[seashells]

thanks bobberman! I will definitely pick up some perlite.

I know I'm trying to get as much sunlight to my plants as possible, but I'm curious - is there ever a situation where there's too much sun for a tomato plant?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Montana State University did a 2 year study that found silver and red mulches did speed ripening in tomatoes and that black mulch was not much better than no mulch at all. At Penn State, they found that blue mulch did an even better job of increasing tomato yields. However none of the colored mulches was as good as black plastic for suppressing weeds.

Something you may consider

Eric