Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-5 Experience)
Seeds sourced from T. Yashchenko. Indeterminate vine, topped out around 6 to 6.5 ft (1.8-2.0 m). True potato leaf foliage. Beautiful bicolor: golden-yellow exterior with pinkish-red blush, rich orange through the core.
Fruit set was solid: set 14 clusters across 3 leaders, while a second vine trained to 2 leaders had slightly fewer. Fruit size ranged from 2.5 to 7.8 oz (70-220 g). Round shape with distinct blunt ribbed shoulders. Flavor is very good with a sweet finish. Holds up alright after picking, though it does soften up noticeably over time.
Adding more photos.
Mine looks completely different: regular leaf foliage, but a massive plant overall. So which one is the true Oaxacan Jewel?
Tasty slicer, gorgeous interior cross section. Mine ran on the smaller side, all under 3.5 oz (100 g). And sadly, like almost every bicolor in my garden, yield was pretty meager.
Turned out early for me (picked the first ripe fruit on July 29), high yielder, and flat-out delicious. My absolute favorite of the 2017 season!
Mine had regular leaves. Really struggled with disease, probably either old seeds or just planted in an unlucky spot. Didn’t even get to taste a single tomato, rot wiped them out completely.
Wonderful variety, delicious like all good bicolors, and ripens among the very earliest bicolors in the patch. Great yield too 👍!
Third year in a row planting this variety with great pleasure. Love everything about it: the looks, the flavor. Indeterminate vine, try to run it with 2 leaders. Definitely did not ripen early in my garden, though…
Grew it in the 2019 season for the first time. Earliest bicolor in my outdoor open ground patch. Turned out to be a really heavy yielder too. Fruits weren’t massive, but gorgeous and packed with flavor.
Delicious tomato, hands down one of my favorite varieties. Performed at an absolute 10 out of 10 in 2019. Massive yielder, giant fruits hitting up to 28 oz (800 g). Mid-season indeterminate with regular foliage. Trained it to 2 leaders. Definitely running it again this season.
Great flavor, yield was about average for me. Started setting fruit really well, but then lost momentum later in the summer when neighboring vines shaded it out. Gorgeous, sweet tomatoes, would look stunning sliced up with fresh cheese on a platter. Giving it another shot to get the full yield next time.
Full Summary: Foliage Variations, Yield, and Culinary Qualities
- 🌿 Plant & Foliage Types: Indeterminate vine reaching 6 to 6.5 ft (1.8-2 m). Grown from two documented heirloom strains: the classic Regular Leaf (RL) Mexican heirloom line and an established Potato Leaf (PL) mutation circulated widely by Russian seed savers.
- 📈 Yield & Sizing: Fruit weight varies dramatically depending on stem training and climate, ranging from 2.5 oz (70 g) up to gargantuan 28 oz (800 g) slicers. Multi-stem setups (2-3 leaders) yield consistently heavy truss counts (12-14 clusters per vine).
- 👅 Taste & Texture: Sweet, low-acid, tropical fruity flavor with signature bicolor marbling through the flesh. Flesh softens rapidly once full maturity is reached, making it best enjoyed fresh from the vine rather than stored.
- ⏱️ Maturity Window: Multiple growers celebrate Oaxacan Jewel as one of the earliest large bicolors to ripen in northern short-season climates (often ripening in late July in USDA Zone 4), though some note it stays strictly mid-season under cool cloudy conditions.
- 🌎 Region Tested: Extensively grown in USDA Zones 4 and 5 across the Leningrad, Moscow, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, and Saratov regions, showing strong performance both under glass/poly and outdoors in open ground.
Originally known in Mexico as Joya de Oaxaca, this heirloom is traditionally a regular leaf (RL) red-and-yellow beefsteak. In heirloom preservation networks, spontaneous recessions or natural crosses occasionally yield potato leaf (PL) variations that stabilize into beloved sister lines. While giant bicolors like Pineapple, Striped German, and Georgia Streak are notorious for demanding long, hot 85+ day seasons and setting light crops, Oaxacan Jewel is one of the few bicolor selections consistently noted by northern growers for setting early fruit flushes in short northern summers.
