Abstract: East-west ridge cultivation can achieve mechanization and simplification of operations in solar greenhouse vegetable production, reduce labor costs, and improve overall production efficiency. However, due to shading effects, the fruit yields of crops such as tomatoes on the north and south rows of each ridge vary significantly. Therefore, this study adopted an east-west ridge cultivation method with a ridge spacing of 1.8 m (ridge width of 0.8 m + working path width of 1 m), selected large-fruited tomato varieties, and used equal height cultivation on the north and south rows of each ridge as the control (CK). Three treatments of unequal heights on the north and south rows were set up: five fruit trusses on the south row and six fruit trusses on the north row (DH1), five fruit trusses on the south row and seven fruit trusses on the north row (DH2), and six fruit trusses on both rows with 0.2 m of vine dropping on the south row (DH3). The study investigated the effects of these unequal height treatments on the canopy light environment, plant growth, photosynthetic characteristics, fruit yield, and quality of tomatoes in the east-west ridge solar greenhouse during the autumn and winter seasons. The results showed that the light environment conditions in the upper and middle parts of the canopy on the north row of the ridge improved under the unequal height treatments. Compared with the north row of CK, the average light intensity in the upper and middle parts of the canopy on the north row of DH1, DH2, and DH3 increased by 9.17%, 15.37%, and 14.53% at 9:00, 12:00, and 15:00, respectively. The average light interception of the plant canopy in DH1, DH2, and DH3 increased by 7.45%, 15.23%, and 10.78%, respectively. At 12:00, the light interception of the plant canopy in DH2 and DH3 increased significantly by 22.17% and 18.66%(P<0.05), respectively. The improvement of the light environment was conducive to plant growth, and the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) of the north row of DH2 and DH3 increased significantly by 48.9% and 46.7%(P<0.05), respectively. The increase in light interception and light energy utilization was the basis for the overall fruit yield of DH2 and DH3 to increased significantly by 9.20% and 6.88%(P<0.05), respectively. Compared with the south row of CK, there were no significant differences in light intensity, light interception, Pn, and yield on the south row of the unequal height treatments(P>0.05). At the same time, the fruit yield difference between the north and south rows on the same ridge in DH3 decreased by 5.8 to 6.6 percentage points. The increase in light intensity in the canopy of the north side of DH2 and the accumulation of light interception in DH3 were the key factors for the increase in soluble sugar content and dry matter content in the fruit. Therefore, the two unequal height cultivation methods of DH2 and DH3 can effectively increase the light intensity in the middle of the canopy, increase the light interception of the plant population, promote plant growth and photosynthetic capacity, and thereby achieve an increase in tomato yield and quality, and reduce the shading effect between the north and south rows of each ridge in the east-west ridge cultivation.