I've always been told not to plant tomatoes and potatoes together. Why is this? I know that they are in the same family and that the potato plants can cross pollinate and create a tomato-like fruit which is poisonous - is this the reason you're not supposed to plant them together? Or is there another reason? Thanks!!
I've read that tomato plants have been grafted onto potato tubers to get 2 for the price of one. Seems like the hybridity would appear in the seedling offspring of the cross anyway, not in the fruits of the cross-pollinated tomato plant seed parent.
Megami--the thing that always bothers us is the blight. We can often slow down the blight in tomatoes by mulching and trimming the leaves up the trunk a bit, it starts from splash or whatever from the soil. Potatoes are affected the same, but are pretty impossible to control so they will tend to spread it into the tomato crop that you spend so much time trying to protect. Personally I just gave up trying to grow both in a residential garden. They would need to be well separated plus the rotation becomes almost impossible for us to avoid planting either crop for a few years in any one spot to keep the blight somewhat controlled. So it's bought spuds for us, so we have a chance at vine ripened tomatoes from the garden... Glen
Glen, you beat me to it but I'll go with this anyway. Actually Tomato protoplasts and Potato protoplasts were fused together in vitro back in the late 80's. The hope was to produce a Tomato plant on top of the ground and have potatoes below ground. After years of trials by breeding some seedling offspring could do both for us. The primary reason not to plant Tomatoes and Potatoes near each other is more due to Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans) as the same insect (Colorado Potato Beetle) that transmits the fungus disease will also attack Tomatoes. Tomatoes have enough problems with soil borne fungus diseases such as Fusarium and Pythium but the Late Blight fungus can harbor in the soil longer. If the Tomatoes get even a whiff of Late Blight the fruit will begin rotting within a day and the plant will be a goner within 2 days as Late Blight acts like a systemic on both plants but more so and faster on Tomatoes. Even smoking a cigarette anywhere near a Tomato is asking for trouble as that is the principal means of TMV (Tobacco Mosaic Virus) getting into the plants system. For historical buffs it was Late Blight that caused the great Irish Potato famine, all prompted by an insect. Jim
Colorado potato beetle involvement is unfamiliar. Dispersal usually attributed to wind and splashing water. http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_LateBlt.htm
If someone is smoking around my plants, what are the chances that it's going to get TMV?? :( And how do I identify that it's TMV? Thanks..
There is no scientific evidence that I am aware of that supports this statement. TMV is a virus and not airborne. The only way you could infect your plant with TMV from a cigarette is by touching infected tobacco and then either touching the plant with that same hand or licking the tomato plant with your tongue. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22959216