Citrina Pepper
A compact pendant sweet pepper that ripens through three useful stages - pale green to lemon yellow to deep red
The three-stage sweet pepper - pale green crunch, lemon yellow at peak sweetness, deep red if left longer. Compact 60cm plants, generous yields, well suited to UK greenhouses and patios.
About this variety
Most sweet peppers give you one decision to make: pick green for crunch, or wait weeks for colour. Citrina gives you three stages worth eating. The pods start pale green and crisp with a faint grassy bite, ripen to a lemon yellow at full sweetness, then deepen to red if you leave them longer. The yellow stage is what the variety was bred for and what gives it the name.
It is a Lamuyo type, conical and pendulous rather than blocky, around 140g a pod, with thick crunchy walls and very sweet flesh. The plant is compact at about 60cm, sits happily in a 25 to 30cm pot, stays upright without much staking, and comes to first ripe fruit in around 70 days.
The useful thing is that you do not have to commit. Take a few at green to lighten the plant and encourage more setting, let the bulk run through yellow for everyday cooking, and leave a last few to red for stuffing and slow roasting. It sets fruit without needing the consistently hot nights the big blocky bells demand, which is why it crops reliably in a British greenhouse or on a sheltered patio where those often disappoint.