Stupice -

[Tomstrees]

Reading the desrciption
of this variety , it sounds like
its a possible candidate for pot culture -
(indeterminate/compact)

Can anyone tell me about their
experience with this ones
growth habit ; either in the gound
or potted ?

~ Tom

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Tomstrees

Reading the desrciption
of this variety , it sounds like
its a possible candidate for pot culture -
(indeterminate/compact)

Can anyone tell me about their
experience with this ones
growth habit ; either in the gound
or potted ?

I've always liked Stupice and have had good results with it. It has a rather open habit and gets about 5 ft. tall max, sometimes just a bit shorter. I generally plant it in a 7-10 gal pot and give it a large (4 ring) box store cage.

[Raymondo]

I like it, though some years it leaves an unpleasant after-taste in the mouth. Suze's description certainly fits with those I've grown, and I grow it most years, just in the ground.

[lumierefrere]

I had 2 "strains" of Stupicke, one from America and one from Sweden. The Swedish was much sweeter, a delightful tomato. Both grew to over 6' tall and were munched on by Sasha who reached over the 5' tall fence to get to them. I don't know how tall they would have gotten otherwise. There was one in a 5 gallon bucket--big mistake as far as I'm concerned but I'm obviously not very good at container growing.

Memo to self: Get bigger containers.

Barb

[bully]

For me it was smallish and viney..although it didnt get a good spot. Never hit 3 ft

[cottonpicker]

I grew Stupice in-ground last year... good spot.. maxed out at about 5 ft., moderately productive, one of my first to produce early in the season, variable shapes & sizes of fruits, flavor OK to me.... not growing it this year. Too many others waiting to be tried.
Good luck!

[Sherry_AK]

I grow this one every year, both outside and in the greenhouse. All my tomatoes are in containers. I'd agree that it's no more than 5' tall. It's an early producer and does well in our cool climate.

[Tomstrees]

That sounds great all ~
Sounds like I would just need a
stake and its all set ~
Tom

[carolyn137]

Relative to what Barb posted above, there are four strains of Stupike, known to us as Stupice.

Two were bred for outside growing and two for glasshouse growing.

The only maion difference between them is plant habit.

I've grown Stupike sent to me by Reinhard Kraft in Germany, in a commercial pack, and my own Stupice I've had for years and saw no real difference.

The only Stupike that is widely available is one for outside growing b'c the others have never been widely distributed yet are still maintained in the Czech seed bank.

Frankly, I prefer the taste of Matina, which is a PL lookalike and growalike, over Stupice.

[Tomstrees]

excellent info everyone ~
Carolyn,
I had no idea there were other strains ~

I prob. have the common one ~
Tom

[Tomstrees]

huh ~
I wonder which line TGS has as thats
where my seed is from >

~ Tom

[Andrey_BY]

As I've already mentioned in one of the previous discussions here all four Stupicke tomatoes were bred by
Research and Plant Breeding Inst. of Vegetables at Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1950s.

2 varieties for open ground:
Stupicke rani
Stupicke rani polni

2 varieties for greenhouses:
Stupicke rane sklenikove
Stupicke sklenikove

I grew one of open ground Stupicke known in USA as Stupice outside here and Stupicke sklenikove in greenhouse. Both were rather early and moderate productive, but at the same level as many Russian early and ultra-early tomato varieties I used to grow here...
As Carolyn do I prefer Tamina (our local name for Matina) for my small greenhouse production. But there are so many early Russian tomatoes which overtake all Stupicke and Tamina (matina) with fruits size and average productivity and has the same earliness and good taste...

[geol]

"there are so many early Russian tomatoes which overtake all Stupicke and Tamina (matina) with fruits size and average productivity and has the same earliness and good taste..."

Andrey, with a focus on earliness and flavor, would you share your favorite recommendations in that regard - thanks

[Andrey_BY]

Geol, actually we here in Eastern Europe and you in Northern America have rather different views about earliness. We used to count days from germination till the first riped fruit as the major indicator for earliness. That's why I can see so many mistakes when foreign gardening sources mention for example 90 days for a Russian tomato variety in the same list with American bi-colors with the same 90 days :wink: But they are wrong because they might see these 90 days on the seed package from our commercial seed companies which always mention only amount of days from germination till maturity. So you think this Russian variety is rather late, but it is early indeed!

There is our classification for earliness as follow (according to days from germination till the first :

<90 days - ultra-early (ideal varieties for open ground in my Zone 4a)
90-100 days - early (this is compromise tomatoes get mature 7-10 days later than ultra-early varieties, but has bigger fruits and a little bit better flavour)
100-110 days - midearly
110-120 days - midseason
120-130 days - midlate
>130 days - late

For every particular groups from this classification the amount of days from germination before transplant could varies from 35 to 70 days!

In my top for earliness and flavor (I like both original sweet/tart combination and sweet and juicy w/o any particular order):
Praleska, Orange-1, Snow Bars, Tamina (Matina), Beli Naliv 241, Boney M, Early 83 (Ranny 83), Shchelkovski Early, Polyarnik, Polyarny Skorospely etc. Actually I know about 100 Russian/Belarusian/Ukrainian/Moldovan tomato varieties with the perfect earliness and flavour as for me, my taste and growing conditions :wink:

[Raymondo]

Wow, I had no idea there were so many early varieties. I've grown and like Stupice (?strain), Kimberly and Sophie's Choice. I have yet to try Matina, though that's on my list for next season. I tried Early Wonder once. Once was one time too many! As for all the ones you list Andrey, I guess it will be years before we see them out and about.