Start S F1

[Milan HP]

Thank you. Not so much for myself, but for the country of origin.
Milan HP

[RJGlew]

Originally Posted by ddsack

For me, Stupice consistently ripens tomatoes about 2 weeks before others.With a short northern growing season, I can't wait to get a home grown tomato!

I'm in Zone 3a as well, and Stupice is an important part of my tomato season. I now only grow Stupice from CZ seed since I found the North American breeding lines produce burley plants with below average yields, and poor taste.

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by RJGlew

I'm in Zone 3a as well, and Stupice is an important part of my tomato season. I now only grow Stupice from CZ seed since I found the North American breeding lines produce burley plants with below average yields, and poor taste.

Researching a bit, I found this Stupice thread about seed from Victory:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...hlight=Stupice

I've grown Stupice several times, and the plants/fruit have all been as advertised -- a small, early PL indeterminate, with nearly round 2-3 oz fruit. Taste? -- tasted to me like a home-grown, fully ripened red tomato that had plenty of sun and warmth. I got my seeds from Tomato Growers, probably within the past 5 or 6 years (but no date on pkt.).

But here's the wrinkle -- for me, Burpee's Fourth of July proved to be slightly earlier, with a bit larger fruit and most importantly, the plant held up longer against Septoria. FOJ also tasted like a tasty home-grown... Next year, I plan on growing all three (Bloody Butcher, FOJ, Stupice) for a comparison.

[RJGlew]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

Researching a bit, I found this Stupice thread about seed from Victory:

Next year, I plan on growing all three (Bloody Butcher, FOJ, Stupice) for a comparison.

Discussions about Stupice/Stupické Polní Rané often lead to comparisons with Moravsky Div, so I'll provide Vladimir's 2014 letter from Moravoseed.cz advising that MD is a RU rebrand of SPR from Moravoseed. Tatiana's page confirms the same.

I grow BB & Stupice each year. They are roughly the same, but BB has very slightly bigger and deeper red fruit. SPR tends to be 1st for me, as it will be again this year.

I used to grow both Burpee's FoJ and Early Treat F1, both of which are listed as 49 DTM, but I've replaced them with Start S F1 primarily due to taste preference. Here, Start S F1 ripens about a week later that FoJ since it has slightly bigger fruit.

[horses4jess]

Start F1 is setting tons of fruit, nothing ripe yet, but I expect blushing on the first ones (hopefully) this week. I did have to prune lower branches on both the Earthbox and the in-ground plant that had mild early blight. I also culled a few small BER-struck greenies from the EB plant after the weather heated up.

Stupice has been my reliable go-to for early season tomatoes for several years. It typically does well in my climate and gets me by on BLTs and burgers until the midseason crop starts coming in. My original seed source was Totally Tomatoes. The Stupice plant went a little crazy with the first big heatwave this year, and caught up to its box-buddy. It has great fruit set, but I doubt I'll have anything ripe for another 2 weeks or so. Stupice has not had any signs of early blight or BER yet. I hadn't initially intended a small-sample direct comparison of the two varieties in the Earthbox, but that may be what I take out of the season.

Photos (Top Left to bottom Right): 1. Earthbox with Start F1 on the left and Stupice on the right. 2. Start F1. 3. Stupice. 4. Start F1 in-ground. 5. Start F1 1st cluster in-ground. Please note that photos 1. and 2. were taken in the evening so the color looks deeper green, the last 3 photos were taken in full afternoon sun.

[Greatgardens]

Nice pictures!

[MrBig46]

I like this thread. I hope that this tomato will be successful, at least in some areas out there in North America. I am growing seven plants this year and, if it will be possible, I will also add some photos of how they are doing for me.
Vladimír

[Greatgardens]

Mine is doing very well in its apx. 10 gallon container. I have it pruned to 3 branches. And thus far, 3 clusters of fruit. It was set out about May 21.

[MrBig46]

Really beautiful plant. I allowed myself to turn it around.
Vladimír

[biscuitridge]

Here's the first cluster of Start F-1 tomatoes, plant is doing great so far,anxious to taste!

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

Really beautiful plant. I allowed myself to turn it around.
Vladimír

How did you do that?

[MrBig46]

I have IrfanView64 on my computer and I can edit photos, add text, etc. Also rotate them. Ask someone to download it to your computer. My son does all this to me.
Vladimír
PS.:Beautiful photo.

[KarenO]

Looks great! Very productive
KarenO

[D.J. Wolf]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

I have IrfanView64 on my computer and I can edit photos, add text, etc. Also rotate them. Ask someone to download it to your computer. My son does all this to me.
Vladimír
PS.:Beautiful photo.

Vladimir, thank you so much for mentioning what imaging software you use to edit and resize your photos! I was at a total loss about what to use until you posted this! IrfanView is so easy to use, I love it so far! Thank you again!

[Greatgardens]

There, it is fixed, more-or-less. The only issue is that I lost quite a bit of resolution. I have run into this issue many times. The forum software appears to take the long axis of a photo and make it the horizontal (and the short axis becomes the vertical). That makes sense, because our monitors are scaled that way. If you just rotate the picture (in Windows 10), then it still comes out on it's side. I did download IrfanView (nice program, BTW), and rotated the picture, but still came out on its side. The way that I fixed this was to change the "canvas" size by adding 400 pixels to both the left and right sides. That made the picture wider than tall, so the forum software didn't change it. But IrfanView changed the pixels of the picture making it less sharp. The best answer that I see is to take the picture in "landscape" mode. Or maybe, I can change the setting on my phone.