Topic: strange fruits growing on potatoes

[baz621]

Ive noticed some strange fruits growing on the tops of a row of spuds, they look like small green toms,and are about the size of a hazlenut, i cut one open last night, they are quite firm with seeds inside, i'm intrigued,does any one know what they are???????????  cant remember the name of the spuds.....

[Chrispy]

Potatoes are related to tomatoes, and do produce fruit similar to tomatoes, not uncommon at all.
Do not try eating them, they are probably poisonous.

Some people tell me I should pick them off, so more energy goes into making potatoes rather than fruit, but don't know if it makes any real difference.

[earlypea]

They are True Potato Seed (TPS) and highly poisonous - so don't eat them!!!

You can save them and grow your own variety of potato - they don't breed true, chuck out lots of variations (can't remember the technical jargon), unlike tubers which are identical.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They're propagated vegetatively, so there's no need for true-breeding varieties. If you grow the seeds on, you'll get a lot of variation. All you need is one decent spud, and you've got your own variety!

[manicscousers]

just taken some off our desiree, going to try an experiment and grow them  ;D

[amphibian]

The TPS has a coating which inhibits germination, to remove this you can soak in peroxide or ferment the seeds like you would with tomatos.

You can grow little plants for mini-tubers, you can then assess these mini-tubers for the traits you're after, then grow the mini-tubers on for larger spuds.

Once you're working from seed tubers you are propagating vegetative, cloning, so all traits will remain the same, it's just a question of growing up a few seasons to get full size tubers. As you can imagine a plant grown from a seed the size of a potato is more vigorous, from the word go, than one grown from a seed the size of a tomato seed.

[landimad]

My old Dad called them potato apples and were not for eating ever.
Learn these things from a young age and they tend to stick with you for a long time.

[OberonUK]

My old Dad called them potato apples and were not for eating ever.

So pommes de pommes de terre? I like that! Just found some on my own plants which have gone a bit wild and want to take over the whole plot. Off to start de-fruiting now!

[Fork]

Pinch off the flowers and you dont get them