Full title: Potatoes and tomatoes are actually in the same family. Potatoes also produce a fruit that looks similar to black cherry tomatoes, but is deathly poisonous. In fact, the entirety of the potato plant is poisonous, outside of the tubers.
There have been attempts to “tame” the plant and have a dual producing plant but, to my knowledge, all failed miserably.
The positive point of having a fruit bearing potatoe plant is that you can harvest those seeds, plant it and see what comes out, which is forcibly a non-patent protected plant.
Potatoes blossom and produce seeds as is. No need to make a topato hybrid.
what about tomacco?
The great majority of potatoes do no bear fruit, which is a shame. It also reduces genetic variability. And keeps the farmers, even the hobby farmers, hostage of seed companies.
Now tell me you did had a nice moment writing “topato”. Silly word. Silly idea. Nature should see into it and make it real. Potatoes and salad from the same plant.
You can just save some potatoes at the end of the season and plants those so they’re spaced out. That will produce more potatoes off of side roots.
Commercial farmers can be fined in my country if they keep potatoes from one harvest to the next. Even small scale. Every year is a race to buy seed potatoes.
A few years back, I read a cover of the case of a young farmer that decided to scale the production of a type of potatoe his grandfather planted every year in his small personal garden.
Because he scaled the production to commercial viability, he got visited and inspected by our agricultural department and faced serious charges, penalties and fines for producing and selling potatoes with no prior traceability. It took serious proportions and it was headed to courts.
This logic bleeds into private gardens and police sometimes approaches people planting their potatoe patches for proof of seed purchase.
It is mafia like.
The hybrid is called a Pomato. It only works as a graft not growing from seed.
You can graft then together! But if you have space it’s probably better to just have a tomato plant and a potato plant.
Is it safe? Don’t potatoe alcaloids infuse the tomatoes?
I’ve never worked with them, a friends who lives in apartments told me about them and that they were finicky!
I can only imagine. Thank you for that.
yeah, even the sprouted eyes from the potatoes are toxic https://www.poison.org/articles/are-green-potatoes-safe-to-eat-191
or if it turns GREEN
potatoe berries look like black nightshade or any of the other non-edible ones, so it is poisonious. if it turns green is inedible. the most famous one is deadly night shade, atropa belladona, others like MANDRAKE, horse chestnut, datura, brugmansia
Mandrake is a nice hobby project. Only takes a couple of years and a whole lot of luck to sprout one from seed. The plant is quite unusual and sprouts beautiful flowers.
Datura and belladona are powerful allucinogens. I’ve known people that toyed with them for “religious” purpouses (neo-pagans).
nightshade
beautiful name
physalis is also great
Best not eat any imho.
