I hadn't, until I came across this report in the Telegraph.
It sounds like something from a science fiction film, but a plant which produces both potatoes and tomatoes has been launched in the UK.
The ‘TomTato’ can grow more than 500 sweet cherry tomatoes above ground, while beneath the soil it produces white potatoes that are suitable for boiling, roasting or turning into chips.
Horticultural mail order company Thompson & Morgan, which is selling the plants for £14.99 each, described their new product as a “veg plot in a pot”.
The hybrid plants are not a product of genetic engineering, but are each individually hand-grafted. Like potatoes, tomatoes are members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which makes them compatible for grafting.
. . .
The plants can be grown either outside or inside, as long as they are in a large pot or bag. Thompson & Morgan refused to disclose which varieties of tomato and potato they had used, for fear of being imitated, but said that the cherry tomatoes were far sweeter than those available in supermarkets.
There's more at the link. Here's an advertising video from the producer describing the plant.
Sounds interesting. I can't help wondering what's coming next. If they can do this with two plants, why not with three or four? Why not with different varieties of fruits and vegetables? Will we end up with salad on a tree?
Peter
What's next??? I'm almost afraid of the answer...
ReplyDeleteHe, heh....back in my misspent yout', I read it is possible to graft a hops vine onto the roots of Canabis Sativa, ending up w/a hops vine that produces THC...Marijuana's active chemical. Home brew, anyone?
ReplyDeleteGrowing up around the huge orchards in the northwest, I can tell you that grafting several kinds of different fruits on one tree was a fun novelty for bored horticulturists. I had a neighbor with 6 different kinds of apples on the same tree, for example.
ReplyDeleteReally cool to see it applied to tomato and potato plants, that would have never occurred to me.
FormerFlyer
Most orange trees are actually grafts. For the most part any plant in the same family can be grafted to each other. Come to think of it a lot of a certain avacado are grafts.
ReplyDeleteThat is actually a fairly sane graft. Both plants are members of the same family (solancea) so the graft, while tricky, is entirely workable. It might even be advantageous.
ReplyDeleteAn expensive way to buy fruit and veg, and you'll only get one season out of it, though the tomato part might survive for another year if quickly re-potted after the potatoes are harvested.
ReplyDeleteThe only advantage I can see might be that potato bugs wouldn't bother the plants but seems a lot of expense for cherry tomatoes and a hand full of potatoes.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy apple trees with multiple apple types on it.
ReplyDeleteEver hear of Lysenko? Google it.
ReplyDelete?????
ReplyDeleteI don't see how this has anything to do with Lysenko at all.
Actually, it would be fun to take a TomTato back in time and present it to Lysenko as an example of what Western science had done with hybridization. You'd have to find a way to hide the graft, though.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1