tomato potato plant

[funingarden]

has anyone ever heard of a tomato potato plant? u get both tomatoes and potatoes from it. how does it work this is the first year we r doing this we got a plant from a friend. and any suggestions on how to take care of it would be wonderful. ty

[Jeremy brua]

Now you just need to graft an eggplant on it. I have heard of it but know nothing about it.

[TheWaterbug]

Potato plants occasionally produce tomato-like fruit, [url=https://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2004/7-2-2004/tomatopotato.html]but they are poisonous[/url]. Don't eat 'em.

[jal_ut]

Yes, watch for those little fruits on potatoes. They look like green tomatoes and quite small. Collect them when ripe and extract the seeds. Those seeds sell for a good price.

I have never heard of a plant that actually gave both tomatoes and potato tubers.

[rainbowgardener]

They are grafted. They are advertised as a novelty.



Michigan Bulb company offers them along with the "amazing fruit cocktail tree."

(in their paper catalog anyway, I couldn't find it in their on-line catalog)

I can't believe it would work very well - the potatoes and tomatoes would be competing with each other for energy/nutrients, etc.

[funingarden]

I know u can eat thees. does anyone know how to take care of them

[rainbowgardener]

Never tried it... remember it's something on the line of a gag gift/ novelty. If it is going to work, it will have to be kept very well watered and fertilized. Let us know how it works out for you...

[mscratch]

If I had only known! lol..I did have a couple of those seed pods several years ago and never knew you could sell them! have never had them since either.

[rainbowgardener]

re: I did have a couple of those seed pods..

Don't know what you mean. There's no such thing as a tomato-potato seed pod, since the plant is a tomato plant and a potato plant grafted together.

If the plant does succeed in producing tomatoes and potatoes, the tomatoes will produce seeds as usual. If you plant them, you will get a regular tomato plant, no potatoes. The potatoes will sprout eyes as usual and if you plant them, you will get a regular potato plant, no tomatoes.

Neither tomatoes nor potatoes produce seed "pods" anyway.

Here's from the Michigan Bulb catalog:

You simply won't believe your eyes! This amazing variety actually grows Tomatoes and Potatoes from the same plant! The Tomato is the "Sub-Arctic" variety noted for its tastiness and extra-early harvest. The Potato is the "Red Pontiac", known for its good eating and storage qualities. How is it possible? Tomatoes and Potatoes are members of the same family. And this special graft captures the best of both. 2-1/4 " pot.

Also note 2 1/4 inch pot is very small. They are grafting together baby seedlings. I would think many parts of the country would have trouble getting them to produce anything within their growing season.

[mscratch]

they looked liked little green tomatoes on the potatoes, so what do you call them? I guess a little green tomato on a potato or a potato with a tomato thing on it? mutant thing? so what is the thing called that holds those seeds? so anyway I called it a pod for lack of a better word. The potatoes I planted that year were labeled as seed potatoes.

[rainbowgardener]

OK, I didn't get what you were talking about the first time. You are right, that is seed for the potatoes. Planted they would grow into potato plants, but not tomato-potato plants which are only produced by grafting.

And the little tomatoey looking things the potato plant produces, with the potato seeds in it, are toxic--do not eat them.

[applestar]

There's a sticky about true potato seeds in the Seed Starting Forum