Pomato

The pomato is a grafted plant. It is a combination of a tomato plant and a potato plant.  The gardener grafts the two plants together: The gardener cuts and ties two separate plants so that they grow together.

Tomatoes and potatoes are both in the family Solanaceae. In a pomato, cherry tomatoes grow on the vine or shoot part of the plant and white potatoes grow in the soil underground from the same plant.

This plant does not occur in nature and does not grow from seeds. The two parts of the pomato plant remain genetically separate, but, after they are grafted, they need each other to live and grow.

Pomato plants are one way to make food production more efficient.  This way, more food can be made on the same amount of land.  That makes the pomato good for city gardens, for example gardens on balconies. Grafted pomato plants began in the United Kingdom in September 2013. A horticultural mail-order company Thompson & Morgan started selling grafted plants under the brand name "TomTato".

References

Category:Agriculture
Category:Tomatoes
Category:Potatoes