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. This year, 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 keep replanting the most desirable potatoes 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!
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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.
I thought my potato plant had an identity crisis and confused itself with a tomato! I will save those little seeds and see what I get. Thanks for the info.
Thanks guys I was wondering about those fruit things on my tatties very interesting weather has been very wet this year this might be the cause. Ill try planting the seeds though :)
Not all varieties of potatoes are able to develop fruit and true seeds. But, apparently, they are used to develop new varieties as there is a lot of variation in the “potatoes” that are grown from seed. The seeds are planted, then the potatoes are dug up to see what grew. If what grew was desirable, then the tubers are saved for planting the following year. Plants grown from tubers should have the same characteristics as the parent.
If you want to save the seeds, chop the mature fruits up and cover them with water. The seeds will sink to the bottom and the other stuff will stay on top. Then dry the seeds and save until you are ready to plant.
By the way, potato fruits should not be eaten as they contain large amounts of solanine, the toxin that all members of the nightshade family produce. This is the same toxin that is present in potatoes that turn green (and why you also should not eat them.)
I am just an amateur gardener in Aberdeenshire Scotland, and was late in digging up my potatoes. The stems were very tall, and the yield good. But I found these green tomato like fruits on some stems and pinkish spots (craters) on the tubers. The tubers look normal when sliced open. Can I eat these tubers ?
No Margaret these are very toxic indeed you can dry the seeds and try and plant next year its caused by different variety’s of potatoes grown together very closely but dont eat them
In response to Patti: Green tomatoes also contain solanine, which must go when they trun red. I’ve never eaten enough fried or in salsa at once to get a stomach ache, but I know you can.
Thanks Patti for the tip about extracting the seeds from the fruit. I’ve left two bunches of fruit to ripen on a couple of plants (The rest I removed as soon as I discovered them to avoid diverting the plants’ strength into fruit production.)
I’ve heard that there is a ‘dormancy period’ of 8–9 months for potato seeds. I think that this means that if I harvest and extract them now, I will have to wait until about May next year before I can plant them. Is that right?
I’ve also come across a method traditional to South America where the fruits are left outside in a bowl until they rot and turn black. Then the seeds are ready to plant.
Has anyone got any experience of this? I will experiment. Email me in 2011 if I haven’t posted a follow-on by then!
Wonderfull to see you work and publish!
I would like to have some of the potatofruits, this in order to find out if they would grow under dutch circumstances,climate e.g. would we be able to exhange potatofruits?
I could sent you some
regs
Jan-Pieter
Why is everyone so surprised that the potato plant has fruit or seeds!!! All plants that flower (and most do) will produce a seed (sometimes in a fruit). My potatoes produced lots of fruit this year, and I will try to grow a plant from them. I’ve taken into account some of the suggestions here and will let you know what happens – if anything.
I must admit, that I did cut one open and trace my finger on the flesh and then tasted it. It tasted good to me, but I did not try to eat the fruit as I had heard that it was poisonous.
I grew up in a potato farming family. The seeds are common enough. Also, when thrown, they really leave a welt.
Potatoes, of course, are clones. You take a tuber, cut it in four, plant it somewhere, and the new plant is genetically the same as the old one.
This improves consistency and yield but increases susceptibility to disease. You’re photocopying a photocopy. Every smudge gets on the next copy. For this reason, PEI potatoes sold as seed are required to have a documented maximum number of clone years. It was five IIRC growing up. After that, table potatoes.
I have heard about these from older relatives. Across the PacificNW fifty+ years ago this was normal on potato crops. From what they say in the late fifties it started to decrease and pretty much stopped by the early sixties. Nature is a fickle beast.
The picture of the one cut open looks like the inside of a tomatillo.
We had these this year as well though I’ve never seen them before. Strange. I wondered if they would ripen and change color like the other nightshade fruits do … so far no luck.
Yup, we had the little fruits this year too. Never seen them before. Our summer in SW Ontario was wet and cold this year too. Lots of potato fruit. Lots of potatoes too.
Thanks for the all the info.
Wanda