[CarolW]

We dug up some desiree potatoes earlier for tea and were suprised to see what looked like small light green tomatoes growing on the plant !
Does anyone know what's happened ?  very odd !!!

[dizzy1pig]

They belong same family....
 just the seed heads after flowers and poisonous from what i can remember

[suziequeue]

They are seed pods. They are very toxic.

Potatoes and tomatoes belong to the same family - Solanaceae... hence the similarity of the seed pod to a small unripe tomato but this family group also contains the mandrake and deadly nightshade species.

Fine if you want to have a go at creating potatoes from true seed but if you have children or dogs etc or somebody accidentally thinks it's a little tomato then prepare for wretched consequences.

Otherwise - remove them and incinerate. I wouldn't put them on my compost heap.

Susanna

[northfifeduckling]

if your potatoes are disease free and are growing seeds, why not dry them and see if you can grow them next year? This is said to improve your stock as disease can be handed down from seed tuber to crop - worth a try! Caution  - see Suzie's post

[suziequeue]

We had a few this year and we chucked them away but I regret that now.

I plan to try growing potatoes from seed next year duckling - different to the usual method.

If anybody's done this then do share top tips.

:-)

Susanna

[CarolW]

Really glad I asked - we were sooo close to having a tiny taste !!!
 I threw them on the top of the compost heap earlier today so I'll pull them out tomorrow.
I think I'll try to dry them out, it's worth a try.

Thank you !