Plant that produces tomatoes and potatoes at the same time

A British horticultural company, Thompson and Morgan, has developed an extraordinary plant that produces tomatoes and potatoes at the same time, Oddity Central writes. A single specimen can produce 500 cherry tomatoes above ground and a grand harvest of potatoes. The plant is 100% natural, not genetically modified. Although such vegetables have been developed in the past in Great Britain, this is the first time that one with commercial potential has been obtained, with no taste problems like the others.Horticultural company director Paul Hansord says the plant is the result of 10 years of work. The idea behind it came to the Briton 15 years ago, when he visited a garden in the US where someone planted a potato under a tomato as a joke. Then he realized that he could graft the two plants because they belong to the same family. Grafting consists in introducing the branch of one plant into the tissue of another, thus establishing a contact between their generative tissues to give the grafted plant the properties of the graft. The tomato-potato "is very difficult to obtain", says Hansord, "because the stem of the tomato and that of the cauliflower must have the same thickness for the grafting to work". In the end, however, with the help of some specialists, he discovered a viable method.
This involves cutting a pin-sized piece of tissue from each of the two plants, checking for viruses and growing them separately in a gel and then in compost. When they reach 5 centimeters, the stems of the two plants are cut at an identical angle and grafted. The lower end of the potato plant and the upper end of the tomato plant are held together with a graft until they come together naturally. The grafting process begins in a laboratory in Holland, being 100% natural, Hansord guarantees, after which the plants are sent to the UK, where they grow in greenhouses until they are big enough to be sold. The director claims that the cherry tomatoes obtained this way are much sweeter than those in supermarkets.

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