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.....
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.
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.
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!
just taken some off our desiree, going to try an experiment and grow them ;D
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.
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.
Quote from: landimad on July 11, 2010, 14:23:40
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!
Pinch off the flowers and you dont get them