🍅 Quick take: OSU O Blonde avec Tetons is an indeterminate, mid-season specialty plum derived from Oregon State University anthocyanin genetics and refined in Europe. It bears variable 4.2-8.8 oz (120-250 g) red plum-shaped fruits splashed with dusky purple shoulders, frequently sporting a prominent pointed beak. In cool northern greenhouses, it yields firm yet remarkably juicy, sweet slicers that hold up well on the vine. Full summary ↓
Grower’s Notes and Photos (USDA Zone 4 Experience)
OSU O Blonde avec Tetons. Local vendors around here humorously catalog it as “Busty Blonde”!
Indeterminate, mid-season maturity, grew in the greenhouse pruned to two stems. The tomatoes are red with a subtle splash of anthocyanin across the shoulders. Plum-shaped with quite a bit of variation, fruits can be smooth or irregular, some showing a pronounced pointed beak and others without one.
Weight ranges from 4.2 to 8.8 oz (120 to 250 g). The flesh is firm-textured yet very juicy, sweet, and packs great flavor!
Full Summary: Plant, Morphology and Flavor Profile
- 🌿 Plant & Lineage: Developed in Europe from Oregon State University (OSU) high-anthocyanin breeding stock. Grows as an indeterminate vine suited for training to two leaders in protected greenhouse structures.
- 📈 Fruit Morphology: Mid-season producer of elongated plum/paste tomatoes weighing 4.2 to 8.8 oz (120 to 250 g). Displays botanical polymorphism with variable fruit shapes ranging from blunt oval plums to sharply beaked, heart-like tips.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Warm red flesh overlaid with a gentle purple anthocyanin cap on sun-exposed shoulders. Firm cell walls offer good sliceability and canning potential, yet retain high juice content and concentrated sweetness.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Svetlana (Svetikk), growing under glass in the Moscow Region (USDA Zone 4).
🍅 Grown OSU O Blonde avec Tetons? Did your fruits throw sharp pointed beaks or stay smooth? Share your zone and photos in the comments below!
👨🌾 Editor’s Note: The “Tétons” Naming Tradition
The cultivar name combines Dr. Jim Myers’ Oregon State University (OSU) breeding program tag with the classic French horticultural descriptor avec tétons (“with nipples”), a long-standing naming convention in France (most famously seen in the heirloom Téton de Vénus) used to describe plum or heart tomatoes with prominent beaked blossom ends. When translated literally into Eastern European seed catalogs, vendors humorously branded it Busty Blonde.
The cultivar name combines Dr. Jim Myers’ Oregon State University (OSU) breeding program tag with the classic French horticultural descriptor avec tétons (“with nipples”), a long-standing naming convention in France (most famously seen in the heirloom Téton de Vénus) used to describe plum or heart tomatoes with prominent beaked blossom ends. When translated literally into Eastern European seed catalogs, vendors humorously branded it Busty Blonde.
