Tomatoes and potatoes grown as one

[Keiththibodeaux]

No more need to separate the Tomato and Potato Forum

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-...-grown-as-one/

Looking to make a fresh batch of fries, with a side of ketchup? Well, you can now make it all with the produce of just one plant: meet the TomTato. Or the Potato Tom. Whatever you call it, the plants are now available in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

The U.K.-based gardening mail order firm Thompson and Morgan introduced the hybrid tomato-potato TomTato plant on Thursday. The Potato Tom hit New Zealand garden centers earlier this week.

Once planted, the TomTato looks like a standard tomato plant, sprouting more than 500 cherry tomatoes. But pulling it out of the soil reveals a full-grown patch of white potatoes hanging from the roots.



The plant lasts for one season, with the tomatoes and potatoes ripening at the same time. The firm says can be grown indoors or outdoors, in a regular 40-liter bag or pot. It is not genetically modified, as it was created through a process called grafting.

Grafting means successfully joining two plants into one, so that the flowering area of one plant (in this case, the tomato) is combined with the more sturdy or vigorous roots of another plant (the potato).

The stems of the plants are first sliced, and then secured together as they start to naturally bind. They eventually form into one plant. The process is most successful when the plants come from the same species, as do the tomato and potato.

Thompson and Morgan director Paul Hansford told the BBC that the firm has been working on grafting these two plants for more than 15 years.

"It has been very difficult to achieve because the tomato stem and the potato stem have to be the same thickness for the graft to work," he said.

Similar plants have been created through grafting, but never on a commercial scale. And they always seemed to lack a crucial element: taste.

But these tomatoes, Hansford claims, are hardly lacking in taste. In a video posted on the Thompson and Morgan website, he calls the tomatoes "sugary yet tangy."

Thomson and Morgan is selling the TomTato for 14.99 British pounds, or about $24.

[Doug9345]

I was a kid when I first heard of my Dad talking about this so late 60's early seventies at the latest. I can see it being an interesting plant to grow in a bucket.

[JamesL]

Weird wild stuff. I wonder if it would do ok in an earthtainer.

[ddsack]

Thomson and Morgan is selling the TomTato for 14.99 British pounds, or about $24.

I guess you could grow it as a novelty, but $24 will buy you way more pounds of potatoes than you'll get off one plant.

With shipping that would be way over $30-- I pass !

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by JoParrott

With shipping that would be way over $30-- I pass !

it's only a question of time when this will be available in the US. BTW, I recently read about a successful tomato-potato crosss (not the first one). That would be very interesting if the result is edible (and fertile and available on a commercial scale).

[loulac]

2 threads on the same theme of grafting, I suggest Mischka graft them together.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=30148
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=30139

I’m relieved to see that Tomatovillians are sensible people reluctant to fork out an outrageous sum of money for a mysterious plant : we don’t know anything about the taste of tomatoes, the wieight and quality of potatoes.Of course we can buy it if we only want to impress a neighbor.Besides, there’s nothing new under the sun. In A manual of gardening in Paris, published in 1845 one can read a description of a tomato grafted on potato that produces both tomatoes and potatoes. Unfortunately the quality was not satisfactory.

[JamesL]

Grafting being fairly easy, it would be a fun little experiment.

[Durgan]

This nonsense fits right in with upside down tomato plants, vertical potatoes, UFO's.

If I were selling such BS there would be more than one phony picture to support my case.

[joseph]

I guess that hilling would be counter-indicated for a potato-tomato grafted plant... Wouldn't want the tomato to root itself: thus bypassing the graft.

[NarnianGarden]

Yes, farmers have known about this for thousands of years - but I wonder if this is the most sensible thing to invest in. Potato roots are meant to grow new potatoes, not so much to nourish the stem and foliage. I wonder how the tomatoes in this case manage to get the needed nutrients - and taste - from these 'roots'. The company claims the taste is sweet, but I can't help but believe that taste will be less-than-optimal for both species.

Grafting skills are better used for fruit tree cultivation than such fads.

[RootLoops]

i am going to try my best to do this this year and see what happens. i agree it is ridiculous to pay that much for a pre grafted plant when it can be done at home. i heard about this a long time ago as well, though not as long ago as you guys except when i read about it the article was how to graft your own. i figure these folks wrote up a press release and that got picked up by this place or that on the web, and since the news monster needs fresh stories to survive it made it's way up to cbs.

i do however really want to give this a shot and see how it goes, i too was wondering how well the potato roots would feed a tomato. this has been done there should be some info somewhere on the web that isn't a sales pitch

[Anthony_Toronto]

This would go well with some Tomacco

[RootLoops]

with a double shot of pomato juice