Strange potato fruit

[Skylark42]

My Purple Majesty potato plant has dropped a very strange berry. I have never seen anything like it, and I've been gardening all my life.

This is no ordinary potato berry; my plants have birthed lots of those over the years! It is deep purple, ovoid, shiny, with little goose-pimples all over it. On the sides it has scales, so that it looks rather like a fat beetle with wing-cases. Each 'wing case' culminates in a little tuft of potato leaves and there is also a tuft at the top. (It was attached at the bottom.)

Question is, what is it, why has it formed, what should I do with it? I'm calling it a berry because it was attached to the dying potato tops (PM is early maincrop, hence nearly ready to dig now)

Thanks! I'm mystified...

[marchogaeth]

These occur on the Sarpo type potatoes as well. I had some last year and contacted the Savari Institute to ask about them. They are usually due to some damage to the stem and will root and grow into a plant. I didn't follow mine through to see what happened next.

[Nicos]

How interesting skylark!
I've never seen that either...strangely in the piccie it looks a bit like a scaley,small aubergine...which is of the same family.

Oh ...and yes...welcome to the Vine

[veggiechicken]

Hello Skylark and welcome.
If you leave a potato to chit and forget about it for a few months, the chits form mini potatoes, very similar to the one that you have.

Here are some I prepared earlier http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1043510

[Skylark42]

How interesting, marchogaeth! I've just spent 10 mins looking for pics but failed to find any. This fruit is so utterly unlike the usual tomato-like berry! It's almost scary in that it looks like a mutation, or a throwback, or an impossible cross with something else.

The plant has produced other berries too, also deep purple, but spherical and with a single leaf-tuft on top.

I do want to plant it (them) to see what happens - but when? I am in Scotland; any sprouts now would likely not overwinter. No greenhouse at the moment, alas.

[Skylark42]

You're right, Nicos - it does look like a scaly aubergine! And I find that oddly comforting, since I'd forgotten they're the same family. It occurs to me now that the 'scales' are attached much as the scales of a pine cone. But of course there is no seed or nut nestling at the apex of the scale.

[Skylark42]

Very amusing picture, veggiechicken! Goodness, what a shock it would have been to come back and find that! The growths here don't look much like my berry but they do indeed look like small potatoes that would be capable of sprouting.

[Ananke]

That's weird, I like weird

Couldn't you pot it up and keep it on a window ledge at home, it would be great to see how it grows.

[Nicos]

Will you take more piccies of it for us please...just to have a closer look?

I too like weird!

I would have put it down to a genetic hiccup/ throwback...if they normally have tomato type fruit....why not aubergine type too?

[Skylark42]

Definitely want to grow it, Ananke! Question is, when to plant it? Will it live on without being planted? Already I feel it has begun to lose its shine and get a bit softer... If I plant it now, though, perhaps it will try to grow huge in winter, when there's no light... (I have no greenhouse or conservatory.)

[Ananke]

It certainly looks like it wants to grow now, I'd still chuck it into a pot and see what happens.
If it gets too big, maybe someone could foster it for you.

The other option would be disecting it see what's going on inside, I imagine there might be seeds in there and some have germinated.

[Skylark42]

Update! At Marchogaeth's suggestion I wrote to the Savari Trust (including the picture), and have had a reply as follows:

"The 'berry' in the photograph is actually a lateral stem that has become a storage organ like a tuber. It is known as an aerial tuber. This is not uncommon on many (all?) varieties. It is a reaction to stress of various kinds. The commonest situation is one where several aerial tubers form near the bottom of the plant as a response to stem damage – the stem may have cracked due to wind or has been bent over by a machine. All the carbohydrate that normally streams down the stem to the developing tubers is choked off – has nowhere to go – and accumulates in the lower stem, inducing it to form lateral stems that swell up like a potato and bears scale leaves again like a potato tuber."

So mystery solved (though my object has wing-case-like scales utterly unlike those of either a seed potato or aerial tuber!). Savari recommends putting it in the fridge for now and planting it in spring, indoors/under glass until it's a good size.

To those who wanted more photos, I'm sorry but I have no proper camera - and my phone is as old as the hills... :\

[marchogaeth]

I didn't really expect you to write to them as I had told you exactly what they told me. However, it's nice to see I had remembered it correctly!