We were out in our garden, “hilling” our potato plants with mulch, when we discovered something pretty cool… POTATO FRUIT!
Did you know that regular old potato plats sprout little green tomato-looking fruit? Check it out!
VIDEO: Did You Know That Potato Plants Have Poisonous Fruit?!
We were out in our garden, “hilling” our potato plants with mulch, when we discovered something pretty cool… POTATO FRUIT!
Did you know that regular old potato plats sprout little green tomato-looking fruit? Check it out!
Hey guys, Derrick here. Just a quick (but very important) correction: At 3:04, when I said "unlike all of the other members of the nightshade family, potato fruit are completely poisonous", I should have said "unlike the fruit of the other members of the nightshade family that I just mentioned (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants), potato fruit are completely poisonous," or something similar. MANY members of the nightshade family are poisonous (in all or in part) to humans and other animals. This of course includes "Deadly Nightshade." I'm very sorry for this confusion, but would like to thank all of you that pointed out my error.
I live in Michigan, and over the years, I have had many potato crops that bore "potato fruit". 🙂
I don't know if it's by chance, but my first two years of growing potatoes traditionally, in the ground, I also had to do battle with the Colorado potato beetle and its larva. They were everywhere!! Once I went to growing my potatoes in/on the dirt, but covered with two feet of compact straw, I never had a problem with Colorado potato beetles again, and it has been at least 13 years of no beetles!
So, growing potatoes covered with thick straw, heavy enough to block out all sunlight, gives me…. No watering. No hilling. No weeding. No bugging!! 🙂
That guy has a charismatic voice
Am I the only one who searched for this, because i was curious
Another thing about the true seed is that it doesn't carry the problem infections that make it necessary for seed potatoes to be grown at high altitude. Anyone can grow their non infective potatoes at low altitude, if you get what I mean.
I would think that one would want to remove the fruit to keep the plant from spending its energy on reproductive structures instead of tubers. Do you know if that makes a difference? I wonder if the seeds are even viable?
American moment.
We had to learn this at school at the age of 12 (Hungary), and you have never heard of it as an adult.
I've never seen potato fruit, but I did get berries on my asparagus plant.
Just received my true potato seeds. Needless, to say, I Was shocked when I received them because i guess I didn’t really read the description posted by the seller. I was expecting tubers ready for planting. I had never heard of true potato seed up until 3 days ago. Since then I’ve researched it quite a bit, hence finding your video. Interesting learn experience. May grow them just because and try to harvesting the seeds, it may take me on a new adventure. Thanks for sharing your video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB54dZkzZOY
Fun fact you can remove the Solanine from green potatoes by making a solution from 0.3-1.0 vol% of vinegar and acetic acid at degrees of 30-60 Celsius which would draw the Solanine into the water and dissolve it but if you are not careful it will make the potato taste sour if left in too long which would probably depend on how green it is as if only a little green then 2-5min would be fine. A way to combat the sour taste is by making your own Vinegar if you opt to leave it in for too long as then the taste of the Vinegar could be infused into the potato and would work better if you cut the potato in half first. As when Solanine meets acetic acid in aqueous solution solanine is bounded to H+ and acetic acid is in a CH300− state. Solanine combined with H+ becomes water soluble and solubilizes in water. As a result the solanine in the potato is released from the potato and dissolved in water. Do not use dilute acetic acid as that could be harmful to the Human body and will result in a sour taste instead use Brewed vinegar which is obtained by acetic acid fermentation of raw materials such as grains and fruits. So for a fun experiment you can do this to the Potato fruit and see what happens best case the Solanine will go down to a edible level thats not toxic to humans worse case you are going to have one sour thing that looks like a green tomato that may or may not be edible and they may have to be cut in two and soak in it longer than a actual Potato since their Solanine is so high.
There goes my morning plans
I have three fruits on my potato plants. Should I save the seeds?
I just found these growing on my potatoes today. It’s just July 3rd, and we have been eating these potatoes for over a month. I had no idea they did this. But we have huge blue potatoes already.
First time growing potatoes, this year, and just noticed the fruit, so I searched for fruit on potato foliage, and your video came up. Thank you for setting me straight. I guess I am lucky to find out without eating it. I knew potatoes and tomatoes are nightshades, so I knew better than to just try to eat it.
Thank you for solving my riddle. Had quite a few for the first time ever.
I just bought seeds and thought I was getting potatoes with tubers. They are actual seeds…so little. Says 100 days to a crop. I only have a porch garden, growing potatoes in a bag. Starting the seeds in the aerogarden so we'll see what happens, since I accidentally ordered the seeds…so I guess Ill find out. 🙂
I used to grow potatoes commercially and some years the entire crop grew fruit. When the harvester crushed the fruit they smelt very like strawberries.
Thank you so much for this information. I'm a newbie to growing my own fruits and vegetables including potatoes. I purchased some potato plug plants earlier this year and have been excitedly watching them grow at an alarming rate. Yesterday I noticed some strange 'tomato-like' fruit growing in abundance on them, so turned to YouTube to find out what on earth these little green fruits were. Imagine my surprise to discover that not only are these fruits poisonous, but also fairly uncommon! Thanks again for this informative video 🙂 Katrina from Cornwall, UK
I found this video because my potato plants have potato fruit this summer, and I had no idea what they were. Thanks!
I just looked this site up for the exact same reason. Found these berries growing on my potatoes and had no idea what they were. I have never seen or heard of these before. I live in Nova Scotia Canada and have had a long cool wet summer.
We have some of those on our taters this year. Be interesting to grow them.
I just found potato fruit today. Have you ever heard of landrace seeds?
The potato seeds that you plant will give potatoes that are harvestable, they just won't necessarily be something the breeders want to sell. It would be a good idea to replant these seeds. You just might breed something even better for your area. (the most likely outcome, actually)
This the very first time I've grown potatoes and yesterday when I check them I found that they had those tomatoes fruit on them 'I was quite surprised to see that considering this the first time I've ever tried to grow any thing' thanks for the help co's I not check this page I might of tried to eat them thinking I grown a strange one potato plant'
We have some on our purple potatoes thats why I'm here. Thought they were tomatoes growing on the plants. Never seen this before. Glad I didn't bite into one.
Thanks. Growing potato's for the first time and have the fruit. Will be getting rid, thanks to your video.
You should get those almost every year. As long as the potato plants are healthy, happy and well-fed, they will flower and form. You are 100% correct as to why the seeds from the pods are not used commercially. Still, I always save them when the fruits mature. I figure if we're ever in a SHTF scenario and weather or some new blight completely wipes out your tater crop, you might be able to resurrect them the following year from seed. They may not be exactly what you'd get from standard seed potatoes (which are clones), but it would be better than no potatoes at all.
I have seen those little clumps of potato fruit for many years and come to realize that I was not part of the majority with those little things…lol. I got talking with my neighbour about them a couple years ago and he never knew what I was talking about. Last fall I had it in mind to bring some indoors to dry for the next planting season only to give up when the drying process never went like I thought….tried it once which is enough.