Topic: Little Green Balls on me spuds

[Ozzy aka Pothead]

Yo Peeps....

anyone help me out here... some of me spuds..Maincrop Maris Pipers (nice flowers) have little green balls growing like tomatoes where there once was flowers..... havent grown spuds before so dont know if this is natural????? all the books says is about earthing up..... and I would need to earth up almost 3ft if thats the case... many thanks in advance to anyones who can tell me wad gwan (whats going on) wiv me pipers....

cheeers

Ozzy

 :-* :-* :-*

[derbex]

You and Hot Potato both -have a look on his thread, there were some suggestions there.

Jeremy

[Ozzy aka Pothead]

Yo Derbex

Yeah seen thread but mine is diff prob as I dont have any wilting and my tomato like things have formed where the flowers were/are... is well mad... and if they is deadly poisonous then they is outta of here......... have looked all over internet and in me book.. and zilch.... nothing .....nada.... also my potao foilage is a good 3 ft tall....?

is well mad

Oz

[legless]

just wild speculation as i don't know, but aren't potatoes related to deadly nightshade? and deadly nightshade forms berries so i wonder if they are a similar thing......

[Derekthefox]

The green balls you refer to Oz, are actually the 'fruits' of the potato plant, unwanted, but not, I believe, a hindrance to the production of potatoes, apart from diverting the plants' energies into seeds.

Incidentally, I believe these fruits are poisonous, so no pies!

[cleo]

Derek has it in one-sling them

Stephan

[gavin]

Yes - potatoes, tomatoes (and peppers/aubergines - about which I know even less) are all the same family as the deadly nightshade.

And there's all sorts of wonderful stories of how they came to be adopted in Europe - we only knew the deadly nightshade, and were VERY unwilling to trust such "items from foreign places".  Edited bits of the stories on http://www.keirg.freeserve.co.uk/diary/veg/pagesolanum.htm.  (Shhhhhh! Don't tell the GM people about these tricks!)

And both potatoes and tomatoes retain poisonous elements of their family - only the tomato fruits and the potato tubers are edible.  Don't try the rest!

I guess the same is true of peppers and aubergines?

All best, Gavin

[cflossy]

I have also found 'fruits' on my maris pipers as well, someone told me I had a disease, boy am I relieved! Thought  it was strange considering all other varieties are ok. Will know now for the future and not worry quite so much.
Its reassuring that someone else has the same.
should they be picked off or are they ok to be left on?
thanks for the advice.
claire

[gavin]

Hi, cflossy - I don't think it matters whether you pull them or not.  Some say do, some say don't.

I do sometimes - but haven't noticed any difference between "pulled" and "left"!

All best - Gavin

[gilgamesh]

Take them off. The plant will be putting resources into producing these fruits, and you want it to dedicate itself to bulking up its tubers. Particularly take them off if you have youngsters who might be tempted to try them.

[Multiveg]

Bob Flowerdew is trialling removing fruits from spuds at Sparsholt in the Gardeners Question Time garden. Apparently, in a field (dunno size), removing fruit from the spuds increased potato harvest by a tonne.

I might leave a few fruit on the maincrop (especially the Sarpo blight resist ones - these on the scale 1-9 with 1 being susceptible and 9 being resistant, scored 9 for both tuber and foliar blight) so I can attempt to grow potatoes from seeds.