I planted a couple Sun Sugars, gave he plants a little Miracle-Gro and Osmocote, and I get a couple handfuls of tomatoes a day. I didn't do much more for them other than to cage them. My plants get about the same sun as yours do. And I haven't had a major problem with cracking.

My problem is Septoria. My plants will be defoliated by the end of July, I think. Next year, I'll spray from day one.

Thanks, aegis. Your tomatoes look lovely. I will put some additional fertilizer around the plants. I have a lot of different types: Miracle grow bloom booster; regular MG; Osmacote like for blooms, regular, and some MG like osmacote (beads) that is high in nitrogen and has trace elements. That, last one, I assume, might be better for green leafies,but not for anything you'd want bloom or fruit from. I kept it, but I'm a bit grrr w Miracle Grow because they don't have very good (overall headline) labeling. I also have the organic, slow? release Epsoma fertilizers like gardentone, rosetone, tomato fertilizer. Those have trace elements or minerals in addition to fertilizer. My soil is sandy loam. Today the weather is soggy, overcast, some showers. Right now bright overcast.

Septoria -- I had to look that up. My tomatoes get leaf-spotty junky looking towards August and I always thought that it was because I have such marginal sunlight to begin with, and as the days grow shorter and the sun lower, the plants respond by getting junky looking foliage. With what would you spray? Maybe I should spray? But I don't want to ingest too many or maybe zero chemicals. I do not buy organic food ($), so I probably consume a lot of junk chemicals ;(

I do think removing the suckers was a mistake. This year and last year I have had a very productive sungold with the same sunlight conditions you have. I don't do much for them. Maybe add some fertilizer with more P and K to help fruiting and flowering?

A couple years ago I had two sun golds and got around 1000 from each plant. My area only gets 6 or 7 hours of direct sunlight each day also. They came out of the tops of the cages and were at least 10 ft high. Never had a plant produce that many tomatoes, not even close

Thanks, robin and vince. Ah, robin, I think you're right. Some tomatoes are way too bushy nuts w the suckers, but I think that for my sandy soil and not so sunny garden, I need to leave the s suckers on Sun Gold. I just went out and got 5 tomatoes from two plants. True, I need to weed (competition) and I think I am not putting enough fertilizer w minerals often enough for my super well draining sandy loam. I say, "sandy loam" -- it was all construction gravel over a sloped woodland lot (oh, yep, the nice topsoil was pushed by the bull dozer onto the next lot, downslope that, guess what, the excavator w the dozer owned (he's dead ). But I can grab some woodland soil/leaf mold from another wood area, it's just WORK to lug it, even w a wheel barrow.

Atop the gravel fill, was spread some unsifted loam (from a pond excavation), but it only covered about 4-5 inches. Over the years I added chopped hardwood leaves, horse manure (weed seeds and all -- don't think I'll do that again), peat moss and decayed (not cooked) compost. One fellow rototilling it some years ago thought it had good "tilth" (word? ). Now there are worms in the soil, there were none, zero, when I started. It is a small area, but I am limited in my gardening work because I have bad back pain 24/7 and lots of other work and projects. Plus ugly interior New England heat and humidity make me collapse into a sogged clothing heap. (I hate it when I want to move quickly, and the humidity is so great that my clothing sticks to me as if I'm trapped in blackberry bushes.)

I'll try to go out and "Fertilize" and weed. Shall I go for a blue liquid Miracle Grow hit (1 Tbs per gallon of well water), and the balanced or the superbloom type? Or would it be better to work in (around the plants) some Epsoma vegetable or tomato fertilizer? Or big box store "composted manure" that I bought for I forgot what? I need a climate with gentle breezes for sailing, no more than 40% Relative humidity; 70 deg F (okay, 55-75), a good shake of sunshine. Vince! what soil do you have, man? Zone 8 = warmth?

Thanks again, people. The few tomatoes I've eaten are delish, but I need to improve my weeding and environment. What's hosta taste like in a salad? ;?

We grew Sungolds last year in sandy soil and had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. We didn't fertilize that often. We had full sun and high humidity and hot days.