I know this isn't unheard of and I know both plants are in the nightshade family but it doesn't happen every day.
Tomato growing on a potato plant
Maybe it's just one of the "potato leaf" tomato plants, like brandywine.
Irish Potatoes that blossom do form from seed pods from time to time. That how we get new varieties. They rarely get bigger than cherries tho. Not edible. Every so often tomatoes are grafted on potato roots and are sold as a novelty. Spring Hill use to be notorius for this by grafting the Sub Arctic tomato on Red Norland roots and marketing in Newspaper inserts as the Pomato.
I'm afraid the photo isn't very helpful; but I suspect this is just an ordinary potato seed capsule. Definetely not edible!
eatmyplants, That's cool though! Are you going to try and start the seeds and see what you get?
I have no plans to eat it. We planted two types of potatoes, russet and Yukon Gold. I think this is from the russet. We didn't buy seed potatoes, just grocery store potatoes and allowed to form eyes and cut them up. I plan to cut the "tomato" open to see if it is indeed a tomato.
Well, terri, I might just let the tomato mature and plant the seeds and see what happens, but I'm sure not gonna hold my breath on getting a "pomato" haha.
Still, I don't think I could let the opportunity of something wild happening pass me by! No nuclear power plants in your general area, I'm assuming? I'm thinking of the fish on the Simpsons, by the way.....not something bad or anything.
eatmyplants -- assuming it's definitely on a potato plant, whether the russet or Yukon Gold, then it's definitely not a tomato, but just the seed pod from the potato plant; the seeds could potentially grow more potatoes, but they aren't going to grow a tomato or a "pomato". If you want to try it though, you could grow a "pomato" by making a hollow place in a potato to put in some seed-starting mix, plant a tomato seed or 2 in there and keep moist until they sprount, then plant the whole thing and you should get tomatoes on top and potatoes underneath; the potato and tomato leaves look pretty similar so it's kind of a "fool the eye" thing. Amaze and astound your neighbors!
;-)
There is lots of breeding going on to develop true potato seeds such as you have there. Problems with planting cut up tubers is certifying the absence of disease, storing them and transporting them. In warm climates storage is difficult. In remote locations, transportation is difficult and expensive. Once good hybrids and stable open pollinated true potato seeds become available it will be a big help in alleviating food shortages around the world.
It would be great to be able to start our potatoes the same way we do our tomato and pepper plants.
Most potatoes are hybrids, You would have to grow it for several generations from seed to get a stabilized OP. Of couse if you got an exceptional variety, they can be propagated indefinitely by vegetative propagation ( Planting the eyes of the spuds).
I had this happen a few years ago with my potato plants... it did give me a scare not knowing what exactly it was. My grandfather retired from a company that was a potato plant so I called him... he used to be in charge of going out into farmers fields to do checks. He told me that there was indeed nothing wrong with my potatoes and sometimes this does happen. I had planted my potatoes close to where my tomatoes were the previous year.
I had them in large quatities last year. Saved seeds, but did not get a one of them to germinate! It is a long process (from what I'm told), and patience is not my long suit, so perhaps I gave up too soon. And we are talking months here!