What is growing on my potato.

Discussion in 'Fruit and Vegetable Gardening' started by Marty MacDonald, Aug 21, 2020.

  1. Marty MacDonald

    Marty MacDonald New Member

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    I have two different potato plants with green cherry tomato sized fruit on them.These are Yukon Gold potatoes I cut one open and has seeds like a tomato. I have not seen or heard of this before. Any answers appreciated.
    Thanks Marty
     

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  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Potato plants are nightshade family plants just like tomato plants, produce similar looking fruits.
     
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  3. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Do you think these plants are potato because that's what you planted? Do you also grow tomatoes, or put tomato refuse in your compost which has been used on the potato bed?
    I'm not such an expert, but this looks like a tomato plant to me.
    I was always reassured by the song from the play the Fantastics, but maybe that was a little too simplistic.
    Plant a radish.​
    Get a radish.
    Never any doubt.
    That's why I love vegetables;
    You know what you're about!
     
  4. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Ooh, better answer, and that was really interesting. Thanks for posting that, @Marty MacDonald.
     
  5. Marty MacDonald

    Marty MacDonald New Member

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    It is for sure a potato plant with potatoes exposed above ground level. Very catchy tune.lol
     
  6. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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  7. Sulev

    Sulev Contributor

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    You may try to get your own potato cultivar by sowing true potato seeds derived from these "tomatoes".
    In the Youtube there are plenty of instructions how to collect and sow true potato seeds.

    Additional information about why to grow potatoes from True Potato Seeds: True Potato Seeds (TPS) - The Cultivariable Growing Guide
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2020
  8. Georgia Strait

    Georgia Strait Generous Contributor

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    Absolutely Ron is correct

    Now if only we could have a potato-tomato .... save space in garden

    Then again - we likely don’t want to go down that “root”

    I suppose BEETS are one of the few plants we can eat top and bottom safely & enjoyfully
     
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  9. Sulev

    Sulev Contributor

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    Pomato - Wikipedia
     
  10. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    That has a definite "what could possibly go wrong?" aspect to it. You'd want to be sure to know which plants were the pomatoes.
     
  11. Georgia Strait

    Georgia Strait Generous Contributor

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    Ouch - and we grew up thinking Eve was the dangerous one in the garden :)

    Apparently not.
     
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  12. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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  13. Marty MacDonald

    Marty MacDonald New Member

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    I bought the potatoes at Canadian Tire as Yukon Golds and am getting lot of taters,
     
  14. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    To clear up any potential misunderstanding, the quoted text is in reference to pomato plants.
     
  15. Arlette

    Arlette Active Member

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    Will it not be a further experiment of Thompson & Morgan's, a well-known British seed brand, after TomTato®?


    A couple of years ago here in Italy, in the Asti area, there were reports of tomato-potato births in various gardens.
    Among the many potato plants sown and grown, there were some really strange ones: under some leaves there were small tomatoes attached, still small and green, but still tomatoes .
    pomopoto (2).png
    It was the yellow of summer.
    No validated explanation for this garden oddity: probably, given the small number of registered plants and the fact that they have grown together with completely normal others, one can think that some batches of seed potatoes resulting from some botanical experiment ended up in the usual ones trade. In fact, botanical studies and cross-breeding to make a potato pomace date back to the Eighties, when Israel, to exploit the small space of fertile soil stolen from the desert, tried to create a plant that, on the same surface, yielded both potatoes and tomatoes .
    Do not forget the grafts of Solanaceae (tomatoes, aubergines, ....) various on Solanum mauritanum practiced by some farmers.

    Faced with these "revelations" I always remain a little skeptical and imagine that I am on April Fool's Day even if botanical genetics are always active and there are not even obstacles, it would seem to me, to the grafting between a herbaceous and a tree being sufficient to graft the vegetable garden on a branch with still green wood (??).
    I do not hide, however, that despite my skepticism these grafts intrigue me!
     

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