Potato fruit
Here’s something I haven’t seen before in my, uh, six years of growing potatoes: green, tomato-like, walnut-sized potato fruit. Bob hadn’t seen ‘em either, in 40 plus years of farming. I hit the web for education. These are genuine fruit, but not that common. Usually, potato flowers just drop off. When fruit do form, they’re more likely found on certain varieties, like Yukon Gold. Here, there were fruit on just about every Chieftain plant, here and there on the Kennebec, and none that I noticed on the Yukon Gold… Each fruit contains 300-500 seeds that don’t come true: planting them doesn’t result in the same potatoes as the parent plant, there’s lots of genetic variation. Potato breeders plant out thousands of seeds, check out the results, then replant the most promising for 10 years or so to get stable new varieties—apparently, this is the way new potatoes are bred. And, the fruit are poisonous, rich in solanine, not for eating (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tobacco are all members of the “deadly nightshade” family, all prone to having toxic parts). Interesting! Since they suddenly appeared this year on two varieties, I’d guess it was about the weather!
Somewhat related posts: • Spuds arrive • Eggplant on the way • After the harvest • Potatoes go in • Massive new potatoes
Wow, this is amazing - I have never heard of Potato Fruit! I love learning new stuff - thanks!
That is so cool!
So that’s what they are I had them on some of my potatoes last year for the first time and this year again. I never got around to looking them up. We also had some double garlic heads. That is to say a secondary cluster of small cloves about 4-6inches above the bulb in the stem. I was told by my garlic supplier that this was due to the cold summer.
Great blog
Jim
we had them appear on our potatoes a few years ago. didn’t have a clue what they were all about. sure glad we didn’t try eatin’ them lol
Do you intend to plant them? I’d definitely be interested in trading for them if not.
I had a lot of potato fruit this year too! I just assumed it was related to a couple of the varieties (chieftan and norland for me). Interesting that it can be weather related.
I’ve heard you can graft a tomato onto a potato and get both tubers and fruit to eat. It would be an interesting experiment, but apparently you less quality potatoes and tomatoes for your effort.
Up here in Maine, I too grow the Kennebec variety and had the fruit this year as well. They seem to like a lot of rain which we have had. I have already harvested our potatoes for the year.
We had fruits on our potato plants last year. I saved some of the seed from the fruit with the plans of trying to grow some from “real” seed. I did not find the time to try it this year. Hopefully next year…
One other thing… In case anyone is curious… I did taste them. I knew that the potato is a nightshade, so I only took a small bite. Moderation is the key, right? I found them to be quite similar in texture to a tomato, but they are VERY bitter. From now on, I think I’ll stick with the tomato!
Me too. Lots of flowers, many little potato fruits. No way was I going to taste them though.