Any veg growers amongst us experienced this...???
15 July 2008, 10:09 PM
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Any veg growers amongst us experienced this...???
My potato plants are growing tomatoes!!I know they supposedly related
Tomatoes and potatoes: more in common than meets the eye | Agricultural Research | Find Articles at BNET
But... has anyone ever seen a potato plant do this before? Should I cut them off or will they be edible etc....
I know this isn't Garden's Question Time forum, but somebody might know....
will post pics if required.
thanks
15 July 2008, 10:23 PM
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Are you sure its the plant that's having issues, and not just 'user' identification issues....
Tomato = red, fairly squidgy, contains pips
Potato = beige, harder, no pips
Tomato = red, fairly squidgy, contains pips
Potato = beige, harder, no pips
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15 July 2008, 10:31 PM
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15 July 2008, 10:33 PM
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"But in South America, it's not unusual to find a cherry tomato-size fruit growing on wild potato plants," says Spooner, a botanist in the agency's Vegetable Crops Research Unit in Madison. "And wild tomatoes have small fruits that may never turn red and that have a color and shape similar to many wild potato fruits."
As I say - I can post pics if required.... it's most odd.
15 July 2008, 10:37 PM
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They sound like seed pods... are they near the top of your potato plants?
DO NOT eat them as they are posionous!
Found this via google
Most people never notice the seed pods that form on potato plants. Not all plants set seed, but be on the lookout for round green pods about the size of a dime. Supposedly this is how Luther Burbank got his start in plant breeding. He stumbled on some potato seed pods and replanted them, looking for an improvement over the parent potato. The rest is culinary history.
If you should find some seed pods on your plants and want to do some experimenting on your own, the pods should be picked when they have had about two months to fully mature. They will still be a bit soft at this point, but they will easily pull from the plant and may even begin dropping on their own. Squeeze the seeds out of the pods and cover with water. The good seeds should sink to the bottom. Dry and save those seeds. Potato seeds prefer a warm (60 degrees F) soil to germinate.
However, while potatoes do set seed, they only grow true to type when reproduced vegetatively - by replanting the actual tubers or potions thereof or by taking cuttings. Replanting the tubers is good and bad. It's great for seed savers. You don't have to worry about cross pollinating, because you are not interested in seed. But it is also a great way to transmit disease. The Irish Potato Famine was due in part to the carry over of disease from one year's crop to the next year's seed potatoes.
DO NOT eat them as they are posionous!
Found this via google
Most people never notice the seed pods that form on potato plants. Not all plants set seed, but be on the lookout for round green pods about the size of a dime. Supposedly this is how Luther Burbank got his start in plant breeding. He stumbled on some potato seed pods and replanted them, looking for an improvement over the parent potato. The rest is culinary history.
If you should find some seed pods on your plants and want to do some experimenting on your own, the pods should be picked when they have had about two months to fully mature. They will still be a bit soft at this point, but they will easily pull from the plant and may even begin dropping on their own. Squeeze the seeds out of the pods and cover with water. The good seeds should sink to the bottom. Dry and save those seeds. Potato seeds prefer a warm (60 degrees F) soil to germinate.
However, while potatoes do set seed, they only grow true to type when reproduced vegetatively - by replanting the actual tubers or potions thereof or by taking cuttings. Replanting the tubers is good and bad. It's great for seed savers. You don't have to worry about cross pollinating, because you are not interested in seed. But it is also a great way to transmit disease. The Irish Potato Famine was due in part to the carry over of disease from one year's crop to the next year's seed potatoes.
15 July 2008, 10:57 PM
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Learn something new every day. 
Even thanks to Google - the most reliable source on the web.
I'd put this in my blog
- if I wrote one...
Even thanks to Google - the most reliable source on the web. I'd put this in my blog
- if I wrote one...
15 July 2008, 11:04 PM
#14
They sound like seed pods... are they near the top of your potato plants?
DO NOT eat them as they are posionous!
Found this via google
Most people never notice the seed pods that form on potato plants. Not all plants set seed, but be on the lookout for round green pods about the size of a dime. Supposedly this is how Luther Burbank got his start in plant breeding. He stumbled on some potato seed pods and replanted them, looking for an improvement over the parent potato. The rest is culinary history.
If you should find some seed pods on your plants and want to do some experimenting on your own, the pods should be picked when they have had about two months to fully mature. They will still be a bit soft at this point, but they will easily pull from the plant and may even begin dropping on their own. Squeeze the seeds out of the pods and cover with water. The good seeds should sink to the bottom. Dry and save those seeds. Potato seeds prefer a warm (60 degrees F) soil to germinate.
However, while potatoes do set seed, they only grow true to type when reproduced vegetatively - by replanting the actual tubers or potions thereof or by taking cuttings. Replanting the tubers is good and bad. It's great for seed savers. You don't have to worry about cross pollinating, because you are not interested in seed. But it is also a great way to transmit disease. The Irish Potato Famine was due in part to the carry over of disease from one year's crop to the next year's seed potatoes.
DO NOT eat them as they are posionous!
Found this via google
Most people never notice the seed pods that form on potato plants. Not all plants set seed, but be on the lookout for round green pods about the size of a dime. Supposedly this is how Luther Burbank got his start in plant breeding. He stumbled on some potato seed pods and replanted them, looking for an improvement over the parent potato. The rest is culinary history.
If you should find some seed pods on your plants and want to do some experimenting on your own, the pods should be picked when they have had about two months to fully mature. They will still be a bit soft at this point, but they will easily pull from the plant and may even begin dropping on their own. Squeeze the seeds out of the pods and cover with water. The good seeds should sink to the bottom. Dry and save those seeds. Potato seeds prefer a warm (60 degrees F) soil to germinate.
However, while potatoes do set seed, they only grow true to type when reproduced vegetatively - by replanting the actual tubers or potions thereof or by taking cuttings. Replanting the tubers is good and bad. It's great for seed savers. You don't have to worry about cross pollinating, because you are not interested in seed. But it is also a great way to transmit disease. The Irish Potato Famine was due in part to the carry over of disease from one year's crop to the next year's seed potatoes.
I'm late as usual, yes they are highly poisonous, and I would just leave them on the plant (as long as kids won't eat them though) .
For all my gardening Q's, I always ask at Gardeners Corner
, they are a friendly bunch.
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