Author Topic: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!  (Read 1997 times)

Magnolia

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Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« on: August 14, 2009, 11:38:36 »
ok so they're not tomatoes but they look like them.  I have loads of them growing.  What are they?  I've not encountered this before. 

Magnolia

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2009, 11:41:21 »
Ah found this answer 'Occasionally gardeners are surprised to find small, round, green, tomato-like fruit on their potato plants. These fruit are not the result of cross-pollination with tomatoes. They are the true fruit of the potato plant. The edible tubers are actually enlarged, underground stems. Normally, most potato flowers dry up and fall off the plants without setting fruit. A few flowers do produce fruit. The variety 'Yukon Gold' produces fruit more heavily than most varieties.

The potato fruit are of no value to the gardener. Potato fruit, as well as the plant itself, contain relatively large amounts of solanine. Solanine is a poisonous alkaloid. The small fruit should not be eaten. Since potatoes don't come true from seed, no effort should be made to save the seed.'

Certainly took me by surprise this morning.  Thought I was seeing things.

thifasmom

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2009, 11:47:06 »
i was like you a couple years ago but i don't get them occasionally, so far i get them every year on my main crops (currently have them now), i assume its because mine are grown in containers and probably get more stressed due to irregular watering :-\.

Busby

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2009, 12:21:40 »
Me too. never had a year like this, the potato plants are full of hanging 'tomatoes'. I've taken the trouble to remove them all, not wanting them to seed next year.

GodfreyRob

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2009, 13:01:47 »
The potato fruit are of no value to the gardener. Potato fruit, as well as the plant itself, contain relatively large amounts of solanine. Solanine is a poisonous alkaloid. The small fruit should not be eaten. Since potatoes don't come true from seed, no effort should be made to save the seed.'

Seed companies don't really like to encourage people to save and use their own seed but you could save the seed and grow them on - you might just come up with a useful new variety. It would take a few seasons though before producing useful tubers.
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dtw

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2009, 13:21:14 »
I think I'll give that a go, do they change colour when they are ripe?

Digeroo

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2009, 14:11:06 »
A few years ago it was possible to buy seeds of a desiree type potato- grew some, produced some quite good tubers quite quickly.  They were not as nice a real desiree though.

I tend to grow desiree and they almost always grow fruit. 

Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Potato plants have tomatoes on them!!!
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2009, 17:50:18 »
Let the fruit mature, clean the seeds like you would toms, and plant them in pots next spring. If mine had lasted long enough to produce seed, I'd planned to give it a go. Maybe next year.

 

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