TomTato?!?!?!?!

susanwillow

TomTato - is this real or an early April Fool's Day joke? :huh:

susanwillow

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-plants/all-vegetable-plants/tomtato/t47176TM

...seriously?

suisidevw

It's genuine.................

susanwillow

hmmm... more of a gimmick then? Interesting though. I didn't know this was possible - I've just read some more about how it was done on the BBC news website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24281192

Are there any other things which have been 'grafted' together like this?

DaftyDuck

They are the same family, so it's not too difficult.

Try googling "family fruit trees" for apple/pear etc. on the same stem. Good idea, but fruit levels tend to be poor, and the grafts commonly fail.

Edit to add.... one reason this is a bad, bad idea is that the above-ground fruit on yoer common tayto is actually very poisonous, and anything that might encourage a child to mis-pick..... oooeeerrrr

Pinzy

I was reading my forest garden book, and that mentioned grafting nut and fruit trees together, in the same manner as family fruit trees.

DaftyDuck

Pinzy wrote: »

I was reading my forest garden book, and that mentioned grafting nut and fruit trees together, in the same manner as family fruit trees.

Why do I just think of Frank Muir, and why does that make me seem soooo old?..

BlondeHeadOn

Just to report that I bought the 3 Tomtato plants with the MSE offer, and have been eating the tomatoes for them all summer. These are gorgeous, really nice firm fruits and a lovely flavour. All 3 plants have been prolific fruiters as well, and are still going strong.


I will let you know about the potatoes from the same plants once the toms have died off and we can harvest the potatoes.


I've been impressed so far though - not just a gimmick, and pretty good value for the offer price even without the bonus of potatoes at the end of the season.

forgotmyname

I would imagine them to be fairly hungry plants. Taking lots of nutrients out of the soil.
How much would you need to put back afterwards?

peter_the_piper

Pinzy wrote: »

I was reading my forest garden book, and that mentioned grafting nut and fruit trees together, in the same manner as family fruit trees.

I read that book, it was printed by Cadburys wasn't it?

BlondeHeadOn

forgotmyname wrote: »

I would imagine them to be fairly hungry plants. Taking lots of nutrients out of the soil.
How much would you need to put back afterwards?

We received 3 packets of Chempack with the Tomtato deal, which took care of the feeding and in fact we didn't use all three packets so have some left for next year.



We planted the Tomtato in 3 of those big upright planting bag thingies, so I can't comment on the amount of nutrients they take out of the soil. Usually what we do at the end of the season is to mix any leftover tomato compost with some well-rotted horse manure, and use it for container bedding plants for the next year which usually works well. I'll let you know if we have any problems with this plan for the Tomtao compost.


HTH