From the moment you plant the first seed to the day you pluck a ripe, sun-warmed fruit, tomatoes provide a perfect blend of visual appeal and a delicious crop. Whether used fresh in salads, simmered into sauces, or layered into a hearty sandwich, their sweet flavours make them a perennial favourite. 

While many gardeners are content with a steady trickle of cherry tomatoes, there's something especially satisfying about growing show-stopping, sizeable fruits. Larger tomatoes make a great centrepiece for any dish and pack in extra sweetness and juiciness. According to greenhouse experts at Juliana, it's easy to grow them with a simple technique that can be done in seconds. They said, "To maximise the size of your tomatoes, consider truss pruning."

Truss pruning involves removing some of the fruit on a truss, which is the cluster where tomatoes grow, to allow the remaining fruit to grow larger.

"This is especially important on larger, beefsteak tomatoes, where the weight of developing fruit can damage the plants", said the Juliana team.

In the UK, tomatoes start to ripen from mid-summer onwards, although timing depends on the variety, weather conditions and fruit size. In a greenhouse, tomatoes typically fruit from June to October.

The Royal Horticultural Society notes that cordon or indeterminate tomatoes, which grow tall and need supports like wooden stakes, benefit from truss pruning. And there's an easy way to tell exactly when to do it.

When to truss-prune tomatoes

The RHS suggests pruning tomato plants once they have reached the top of their support. Another indicator is the number of fruits on the plant.

Tomatoes grown indoors, perhaps in a kitchen or greenhouse, should be truss-pruned when they have seven fruit trusses. For plants grown outdoors, consider pruning when the plant has four trusses.

Pruning in June, when plants typically start to set fruit, ensures your plant knows which trusses to concentrate on well before the height of summer's ripening rush.

How to prune tomatoes

The method is easy. To cut off fruit clusters, simply remove the growing point of the main stem at two leaves above the top truss.

According to the greenhouse experts, you should aim to keep about four to six tomatoes per truss on indoor tomato plants.

They said: "Remove the smallest or misshapen fruits, allowing the plant to concentrate its energy on developing fewer, but larger, fruits.

"Regularly check your plants and prune as needed throughout June."

Think of it as helping your tomato plant focus its resources: instead of nurturing eight or ten smaller fruits, it devotes more sugar, water and nutrients to just four or five, yielding bigger, more flavourful tomatoes.