Comparing Bloody Butcher to Stupice

[Greatgardens]

These are two fairly common early varieties, so hopefully we'll get some feedback. I've grown Stupice, and this summer, I'm growing Bloody Butcher for the first time. Stupice is a really good early tomato. I grew it against Burpee's Fourth of July. FOJ was a little earlier, produced more, and the fruit was a little larger. Then we come to taste. I'm not big on small nuances in flavor, but I'd have to say that Stupice was a little sweeter -- maybe. Both were very acceptable to my palate. I've also grown Kotlas, and for me it had pretty sparse foliage, so sun scald was an issue. IMO, Kotlas was a cut below Stupice. (But I didn't grow them in the same season). I guess I've got to include Early Girl. A little later than the others, a little bigger than FOJ, and widely available. It's also a somewhat larger plant than the others. In a good season, EG is superb.


But back to the original question, how do Bloody Butcher and Stupice compare?

[AKmark]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

These are two fairly common early varieties, so hopefully we'll get some feedback. I've grown Stupice, and this summer, I'm growing Bloody Butcher for the first time. Stupice is a really good early tomato. I grew it against Burpee's Fourth of July. FOJ was a little earlier, produced more, and the fruit was a little larger. Then we come to taste. I'm not big on small nuances in flavor, but I'd have to say that Stupice was a little sweeter -- maybe. Both were very acceptable to my palate. I've also grown Kotlas, and for me it had pretty sparse foliage, so sun scald was an issue. IMO, Kotlas was a cut below Stupice. (But I didn't grow them in the same season). I guess I've got to include Early Girl. A little later than the others, a little bigger than FOJ, and widely available. It's also a somewhat larger plant than the others. In a good season, EG is superb.


But back to the original question, how do Bloody Butcher and Stupice compare?

BB is much, much better to me. It also makes great breeding stock to beefsteak heirlooms. Ive maintained my seed from BB every year for about a decade. Stupice is just early, I do not care for the flavor that much at all. Matina is another in that class that is good, Morovisky Div is good too but not real early for me.

[eyolf]

I have two Bloody B, and two Stupice, as well as two Johnny's JSS3570. BB and Stupice were ripe the same day. JSS3570 was held back in cold garden soil, while one of each BB and Stupice are on the deck.

This is a hot dry summer, making the tomatoes more flavorful, IMO, and the differences between BB and S are negligable re: flavor.

This year.

BB are more variable in size and form; one tomatoe was almost a slicer. So far Stupice is offering uniform tomatoes about 1-1/2"...twins to those Campari tomatoes in the supermarket, with slightly more tender skin.

Plant habit is somewhat different: Stupice is quite well-behaved, while BB is almost like many other early indeterminates: about twice as many suckers as Stupice. I'm letting Stupice have 2 and a main stem: I've pinched off 3 or 4 from each BB to limit it to the same.


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[JRinPA]

Could you guys take some pics of the different plants and fruit?


I'm still growing a tomato from the swap that was marked "stupice" but is a RL plant with leaves that curl up a bit in sun and produce lots of raquetball+ size tomatoes that stay ripe on the vine a long time. I've been wondering if it is really bloody butcher, or? This year I have it going next to other types, getting one stem per every 6", for 1 or 2 stems per plant. I'm not sure how productive (versus sq footage) it is this way versus letting it go all out in a cage. I grew it this way last year, but got behind on suckering and it went crazy at the end. I wonder if it just doesn't like the sun.


So if people could post example pics of foliage and fruit on truss, I'd appreciate it. I'm going to take some pics of mine to compare.


edit well I just checked tatiana's and it says BB is PL as well. Still curious though as to leaf color and such.

[Greatgardens]

My BB is in an EB with a Fourth of July. That may work to BB's disadvantage, since FOJ is a much larger, more vigorous plant. FOJ also easily has 2-3 times as many tomatoes on it. But BB does taste a little better from those I've had thus far. BB is going down hill at this point; FOJ is still going strong. I have a different batch of BB seed for next year, and I'll not mix the plants in the EB's.

[eyolf]

Bloody B and Stupice are growing near each other in the garden, in 3 foot cages made of sheep-netting fence.
BB has overgrown the cage:

I picked the first fruits, but here is a pic of a plant grown separately for seed:


Finally, Stupice in a similar cage to pic 1



Fruit are very uniform globes about 1-1/4"-1-3/8" dia.

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[slugworth]

Bloody butcher is one of my july tomatoes,other varieties don't get ripe until august or early september.I lost a lot of plants after last years aug 4th hurricane.
In the past we would get a hurricane maybe every 10 years,who knows now with global warming.We already had 1 tropical storm hit.
I forgot the last time I had to water the garden.Seems like it rains week after week.

[JRinPA]

Week after week sounds good...day after day, that would be a bit much. It is usually fairly dry in our little 3 mile micro climate. Much of the weather that comes from west to a few points south of west will break up and often reform past us, a few miles down the road. The ground is dry again here already.



Neither of those plants from eyolf look anything like the foliage on mine.

[slugworth]

Stupice I grew years ago,but stuck with the bloody butcher year to year.

[Tormato]

There's no such thing as a really good early tomato. Your taste buds have been in withdrawal for so long, they trick you into thinking those first early tomatoes of the year taste good.

[slugworth]

I grow tomatoes in the window during winter and taste delicious tomatoes in january.
So there is no excuse for store bought tomatoes to taste green.
Unless they are and gassed.
The only flaw is the size.

[JRinPA]

These are tomatoes (skip the first two stems, a black krim, and what looks like a moskvich misplaced - they were seed flat siblings) I got in a swap in a bag marked Stupice. I've been growing them every year. I'll have to take some leaf close ups.

A few years back I thought they looked much more RL than PL, and tville posters agreed. For sure, when I grow stump of the world, it is clearly PL. These don't strike me that way. Another thing for sure, these leaves do the fold up in the heat.

I still can't really judge whether they produce better let go in cages, or single/double stem like this. The truss and fruit size run larger this way.

Question: Does Stupice normally fold its leaves up in the heat?

[eyolf]

Many potato-leaf varieties exhibit leaf curl on hot days.

Stupice and those similar aren't the worst, but DO display the tendency.

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[Greatgardens]

@eyolf- those are really nice looking plants! My BB never looked that good -- maybe next year!
-GG

[eyolf]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

@eyolf- those are really nice looking plants! My BB never looked that good -- maybe next year!
-GG

While I believe that some Potato-leaf varieties exhibit some tolerance for leaf blights (Kotlas and it's parent JSS3570 don't, much) they eventually DO succumb.

Mine aren't quite as lovely today as they were a week or two ago.

I'm growing a couple of heirloom varieties known for REALLY low tolerance: they look awful. 7 feet tall with no leaves for the bottom 20"...but there are ripening tomatoes there, attracting rodents looking for a snack.

These get picked and fermented for fresh seed.

As you might be able to see, I grow in black plastic. Don't reuse it from year to year: it isn't easy to disinfect. One downside: if you don't plan ahead, watering in a drought year can be a problem. I didn't, and have kind-of ghetto-engineered a redneck drop system...but it was a hassle working around tomatoes at least 3 feet tall and filling up cages.

Next year, I'll do better.

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