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 many years or generations to get new commercial varieties—apparently, this is the way new potatoes are bred.
Meanwhile, it apparently only takes only two seasons and one generation to breed genetically stable new potatoes, so for the small farm or home garden, as opposed to the big potato breeder, this seems like a viable way to go. Harvest seed one season—you can hand-pollinate to cross two varieties—plant out the next and select your favorites. Those tubers should be stable and ready to go, you just have to build up a quantity, which takes another season, unless you need hardly any at all!
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 (potato fruit are somewhat similar to little, hard green tomatoes). Interesting! Since they suddenly appeared this year on two varieties, I’d guess it was about the weather!
Since this is such a popular post, being dug up over and over via Google, I’ve started to update the article as I discover more. I’m not marking the changes. This is unusual. In general, I don’t edit old blog posts, and clearly mark the updates when I do!
Wow, this is amazing – I have never heard of Potato Fruit! I love learning new stuff – thanks!
I take it that it is safe to eat the potatoes
Eat the ROOT. The FRUIT is deadly!
Yes, I noticed them on our Yukon Gold potatoes. I had never seen them or looked for them before. It would seem that if you wanted to do genetic selection, you could plant the seeds from within the fruit. I only grow Yukon Gold because my family insists on us raising this yellow, butter-like potatoes. They love them!
Craig
I found several on my red potatoes this year, just a grocery store bought variety that went to sprout.
My Blue potatoes are loaded with “fruit” this year. Whole clusters of them. I might try to grow a few out next year.to see what we get later on.
Do u cut it open and take out the seed to plant
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.
DO NOT GRAFT TOMATO TO POTATO BECAUSE THE ALKLOID POISON TRANSFERS AND YOU WILL GET SICK IF NOT DEAD! LOOK IT UP
Why is it dangerous to graft a tomato with a potato plant? Strangely this year we have found what is being called POTATO FRUITS on our potatoes, which we have never seen before and they have been proven to be DEADLY POISONOUS. here is my website on the matters:- http://www.outofthebottomlesspit.co.uk/421556550
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!
Those are poisonous… I wonder how sick you got
I ate them as well, well just one. I just didn’t know what it was. My potato fruit just tasted like a dull tomato. Not bitter at all. I didn’t get sick. After learning what I ate I am still astonished. I only found out what it was 3 days later. I am still a little bit shocked, but I had no health problem at all.
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
Not surprising that they look like a tomatillo- Tomatillos are also nightshades. There is another nightshade, Solanum quitoense, or Naranjilla, where the green fruits are poisonous, but the ripe fruits are very much edible and used in juices, jellies, etc. in South America. Didn’t know that green tomatoes contained the poison, but not surprised, either.
Does anyone know when to seed the true seeds in the Northeast? I have some seeds, but don’t want to start them too early or too late? thanks.
From what I have heard and looked up, they make a hybrid tomato potato plant where the fruits once red are not poisonous. It makes cherry tomatoes upstairs while potatoes downstairs. Look up the Tomato potato plant
The potato seeds I saved from fruits last year have germinated! I think I may have seeded them a week or two late, does anyone have any tips for growing them? I plan on treating them like tomatoes.
Well, just looked this subject up as my Potato plants have fruits this year, here in the midde of France. Strange, not seen this before. Not sure of variety at the moment, must look them up.
I have one single fruit amongst many potato plants. It is growing on a Desiree variety planted next to Ratte variety. I will save it and plant the seeds next season. Thank you for all the great info.
Deb, are your sure green tomatoes contain solanine? If so, it is not enough to hurt anyone. Fried green tomatoes are a delicacy eaten in great quantities all across the southern U. S. We slice the tomatoes a quarter inch thick, salt them, dredge them in corn meal, and fry them in hot peanut oil. They have no bitter taste, and I never heard of anyone getting so much as a headache or slight gastric upset from them.
well, notice all you’ve done to the poor tomatoes. You chopped. salted, minced, and deep fryied them. That’s enough to kill most of the solanine. I’m wondering if the same could be done with those fruits. They’re not toxic to adults if consumed in very small amounts even raw, let’s say less than 40 grams of fruit.
I have quite a lot of potato fruits on my Desiree potatoes this year. I had never seen them before and no-one I spoke to had seen them either including the man who runs the farm shop nearby! My Desirees are planted next to some Maris Bards and some Rockets; both first earlies. I’m unclear as to whether it is likely that the fruit indicates self fertilisation or cross fertilisation with one of the other two.
I intend treating them like I do with tomato seeds which I collect most years, namely collect them when the fruit is ripe and then next Spring get them to germinate on the window sill before moving them on. From reading this website I am expecting that the first year I will get only small potatoes suitable for using as seed potatoes the next year.
Am I correct in assuming that this is how big firms develop new varieties? If so I suppose they do it on a grand scale and our chances of getting a good new one are very small. All the same it will be a bit of fun. Since it seems fairly rare I wonder if they have some way of getting more fruit?
Thanks for the help on this site.
Hi, I too have potato fruit this year. does anyone know how to tell if the fruit is ripe and ready to be dried? I would like to try and plant them next year to see what happens.
Hi i was informed of the following
The potato fruit are of no value to the gardener. Potato fruit, as well as the plant itself, contain relatively large amounts of solanine. Solanine is a poisonous alkaloid. The small fruit should not be eaten. Since potatoes don’t come true from seed, no effort should be made to save the seed
I looked up this fruit 3 years ago and found a small amount of info. This is clearly more informative. I have had these fruits on supermarket bought main crop potatoes (desiree) that rooted in the cupboard, then planted out. Also, this year, they have appeared on desiree seed potatoes. When do we know they are ripe enough to harvest ready for experimental re-sowing?
Saved seed year before last. Separated the seed out and dried it on paper towel like I would a tomato. Last year I sprouted them indoors and transplanted in may. I harvested the tubers and saved any bigger then a dime. This spring I planted a row … red …. white … blue … everything. Will harvest in the fall for seed. Maybe next year a taste test. This is turning into a four year project.
Since potatoes don’t come true from seed, every effort should be made to save the seed
Last year I grew potatoes saved from the Blue Victor fruit seed, and all was well. Also, on the plants produced from seed potatoes I had the fruit seed.
Generally what I have been told is the seed fruit when planted, may not grow as the seed potato you planted in the spring, but might return to either parent potato.
This year, I grew the potatoes from the fruit tomato, along with potato seed same variety from another source, and have potato seed balls on all plants.
Also this year, I received a seed ball from the White Rose, Russet, Carola. We grow heirloom potatoes. The seeds are small, but I have them air drying on a plate.
We planted potatoes for te first time this year, in the north west of England, and now have a number of fruit on several of the plants. Not sure how to tell when fruit will be ripe, open to advice. will attempt to plant seeds next year.
Hi David, Wait until the potatoes die back and the plants and fallen, then take the seed balls.
I generally squish out the seeds of the fruit, and let them dry on a white plate, this way you can see if there are abnormalities. They will be very small and off white/yellow.
Kim
I get these potatoe fruit on just about all my plants ever year, and then have to go round almost daily to pick them off before the young children who play on the site start picking them to eat.
Have a look at tatermaterseeds ( http://tatermaterseeds.com/ ) for all the information you need and many good tips on growing from TPS. Also Tom is willing to send seed – I grew out some of his last year and posted the results here –
http://mustardplaster.blogspot.com/2010/10/further-adventures-with-potato-seed.html
He is working on crosses that have great resistance to late blight. It’s a lot of fun if you have the space.
@misshathorn—Thanks for those excellent links. I’ll need to remember to plant my potato seeds in March.
fruits are good for health
Tried to germinate the seeds I harvested last year. I did it the same way I do it for tomatoes and I got some to germinate but they were so feeble that they just didn’t grow beyond the very first stage. Disappointing. So much for my new variety!
Had these last year on my potatoes in ireland in some really terrible weather. The least sunny July on record here in Ireland. If I get them again this year Ill be trying for germination