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Tomato or potato? Why not both?

GardenDrum

GardenDrum

October 1, 2013

You say TOM-AY-TO…..and I say POT-AR-TO. Remember that old song? What if you could have a plant that produced both tomatoes and potatoes AT THE SAME TIME?

Thompson and Morgan in the UK are selling a grafted plant that is a tomato above ground and a potato below. Their TomTato™ produces large trusses of “full-bodied” tomatoes and white potatoes.

New Zealand also claims its cross-grafted plant as a ‘world first’, with Springvale Garden Centre in Wanganui spruiking the somewhat adventurously named ‘Potato Tom’, a combination of Gardeners Delight tomato and Agria potato.

I know they’re both Solonaceae plants but this ‘hand-grafted’ cross genera plant is just a bit freaky to me. I do like one comment I read that described it as a potato fry with its own ketchup.

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Sandra
11 years ago

A plant with the trade name PotatoTom has just been released in New Zealand in the incredible edibles range. I was talking to the guy who has done it for them and he said four years ago no one was looking at it as far as he knew, then last week he found out about the English one.

No one’s claiming it as a new idea (or they shouldn’t be) but it is the first time that such a graft has been made available commercially.
http://www.edible.co.nz/

Phileppa Doyle
Phileppa Doyle
10 years ago

I wonder if this will be available in Australia soon? I’d certainly like to try growing either the Tom Tato or Potato Tom. It is a new idea, isn’t it? I’d not heard of it before this article from the UK with the video.

Richard Barker
Richard Barker
9 years ago

I know a lot of people who have done this graft and made their own TomTato or PotMato type of grafted plant. This is not a new idea or even a difficult plant to produce, people have tinkered with it for a few hundred years but it has never been done commercially as the yields from both crops are lowered considerably.

As a novelty plant it is great, people who know little about plants love talking about it and you are sure to impress people at the water cooler. As a food crop you are better off growing a potato and tomato in the same pot as you get a larger yield that way.

Don’t believe me? Go to Thompson & Morgan’s website and even though they rate it as 5 stars the reviews from customers are not very positive.