Citrus Garden Tomato Review: The Multiflora Lemon Heirloom

Grew it in the greenhouse. The variety is tall (indeterminate). I grew it to two stems.
The trusses are complex (multiflora) and heavy, they need to be tied up.

At the end of July, I topped the bush (cut off the growing tips), and it turned out that seven trusses had set across the two stems.
But they didn’t all manage to grow and ripen; there wasn’t enough time, I cleared out the greenhouse at the end of August. I came to the conclusion that the variety is late-season.

I liked the variety – it is beautiful, productive, and tasty.

I join Irishka regarding the beauty and yield, however, mine turned out with a distinct tang (acidity).

I also liked the taste; I described it as fresh and light. Unusual, pleasant 😋

Mine grew outdoors in open ground. It got hit by a drought but survived thanks to watering. Productive, but the inside was a little bit hollow, probably because there was still a lack of moisture.

Citrus Garden, which is, as most here believe, “Chudo Sveta” (Wonder of the World), 1 variety under two names, grew for me from an off-type (wrong seed mix-up).

September photo

Today’s photo, October 16th. The taste is still there, tender, no tang is felt, they are firm and store well. My granddaughter and I give the taste 4 out of 5 stars, because we tasted it alongside the yellow De Barao, and the latter turned out tastier, juicier, with more tang and sweetness.

We have it under the name Citrina (in Latin letters). Everything is one-to-one identical. I classified it as a cocktail type, but is it supposed to be larger?

I’m looking at the description – trusses up to 30 fruits, fruit weight 75-80 g (2.6-2.8 oz). Could that be right?

By the way, regarding it being a late-season variety. I looked closely at the description, and the sowing time is listed as February-March. So normally, it is expected to be sown in February!!! And then fruiting starts in July.

The height is listed quite broadly as 150-200 cm (5-6.5 ft), an unusually large range. And in the Latvian description, they recommend leaving only 3-4 trusses, since they have about 30 fruits each.

Alena, there definitely weren’t 30 pieces per truss, although the bush still looks totally loaded with fruit. The bush made an appearance in my granddaughter’s photo, standing on the right, just starting to ripen, in the “Honey Drop” thread, page 3. Ours was 1.2 m (4 ft) tall, then we snapped off the top. The fruit weight was 55-60 g (2 oz), none were larger than that.

In Germany, private sellers sell it under the names – Citronella, Russische Lime Zitronen, Venusbrüstchen gelb, Teton de venus jaune, whatever their imagination comes up with. The most beautiful name is Yellow Breasts of Venus, if translated into English/Russian. Everyone writes that the variety is very rare. They used to not add “yellow” to the name, but now they do, because breasts of other colors appeared, red and striped. The striped breasts in our catalog are the Purple Fairy variety, which they write exactly as Venusbrüstchen gestreift, rot-grün.

Yellow Citrus Garden grew in the greenhouse, the plant was 1.5-1.8 m (5-6 ft) tall, trusses with a huge number of fruits, definitely late-season, the tomatoes ripened poorly off the vine indoors, they developed dark stripes of unknown nature – not late blight (Phytophthora). But overall, I liked the variety.

Question – how do you tie up the trusses for this variety?
The truss is long, sets gradually from the center to the edges; inside the fruits are about 40 grams (1.4 oz), and towards the outside there are bouquets, long and going in all directions. So I’m thinking, how best to tie it up – right now it’s growing upwards and horizontally, will it snap downward?…
The whole truss.
The fruit with a nipple (fig shape).

I’ll show mine. Already evaluated the taste. Sweet, light. Average weight 80-90 g (2.8-3.2 oz). The trusses are massive, I managed to tie them up in time, otherwise, they would have broken off. They’ve already grown over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall. Seeds were from Aelita.

And this is my Citrus Garden. Seeds from Aelita.

The little tomatoes are all perfectly uniform, they look very beautiful both on the bush and in a canning jar. I liked the taste too. But regarding the speed of ripening, I would classify them as late; we harvested the first crop only a few days ago. But on the bright side, they ripened all together uniformly, we picked about 20 tomatoes at once from three bushes.

Oksana said:
The little tomatoes are all perfectly uniform, they look very beautiful both on the bush and in a canning jar…

Are they firm when canned in jars? I have them saved for next year. I’m thinking, if they are late for you in the South, they might not ripen at all in Belarus 😞 (I love them ripe right off the vine) 😋

In my greenhouse, they are finishing blooming but are in no hurry to ripen; it’s true, they filled out a long time ago and hung there for ages without changing at all. They act like a mid-to-late season. For example, I think I need to try growing them from my own saved seeds, it should be better. A downside for me – the periphery (outer edges) of the truss didn’t wake up. They finished blooming, didn’t drop, but aren’t developing fruit. Apparently, they got hit by a cold snap, and this is the result: fruits only set in the center of the truss, maybe a dozen. And I was expecting a gorgeous massive truss. It bloomed so beautifully.

Irina said:
Are they firm when canned in jars?

We literally just canned them the day before yesterday, so it’s too early to tell. But the tomatoes themselves are indeed quite firm, so I hope they stay that way in the jars. When we open them in winter, I’ll write how they turned out.

Irina said:
I’m thinking, if they are late for you in the South, they might not ripen at all in Belarus…

If they ripened for me (in Siberia), how could they not ripen in Belarus? 😁

In canning jars, they are average.

Semechka said:
If they ripened for me (in Siberia), how could they not ripen in Belarus?

Well, since they did in Siberia, then there’s nothing to fear – I’ll plant Red Alert and Citrus Garden right next to each other – they look similar (with their fan-like trusses and size) – purely for the aesthetics. 🌺

Irina said:
Are they firm when canned in jars? I have them saved for next year. I’m thinking, if they are late for you in the South, they might not ripen at all in Belarus

We don’t live that far from Belarus. They started ripening for me along with all the other tomatoes. And the summer was bad this year. So I think everything will be fine. But the upper trusses are just blooming and starting to fill out.

Irina said:
But the upper trusses are just blooming and starting to fill out.

All my upper ones are still blooming and setting fruit too (cold nights) 🤕 Last year at this time the mass harvest was already underway, and now they are about 10 days behind 😞 My only hope is a warm autumn.

And here is my Citrus Garden. I planted it in the greenhouse… I just don’t grow outdoors, less hassle 👍 I planted late for this variety (March), and it’s definitely better to start in February… but a decent bush grew anyway. Not fussy, not acidic. It goes great in canning jars… though I over-sterilized them and some split, but otherwise, it’s a tomato with a sturdy skin… I will definitely continue growing it….

I profusely apologize, but in all the photos, except Irina’s, it looks like Anna German. 😳 They are more rounded.

Vera said:
I profusely apologize, but in all the photos, except Irina’s, it looks like Anna German. 😳 They are more rounded.

Well, this isn’t Anna German…

My Citrus Garden

Finally ripe, one of the latest ones. But the long wait was worth it, I really liked it 👍 Beautiful yellow lemons, firm, tasty. The only minus is they are late. A bit large for canning jars, in my opinion.

I’ve been planting Citrus Garden for many years, I really love them. Here are mine.

Yesterday I gave my uncle some tomatoes of different varieties to taste. As I’m putting Citrus Garden into the bag, he yells: “Why are you putting lemons in? You said you’d only give me tomatoes!” 😄 He was very surprised by the shape, he even liked it more than Auria 😂.

Found another photo (Black Cherry in the center)

And I bought these exact same tomatoes under the name Citrina.

This looks very similar to Citrus Garden. Has anyone grown this?