"David W.E. Roberts" wrote:

At one time people were grafting cuttings from tomato plants onto the top of
potatoes to get two crops from the same planting.

I've seen these grafted plants sold by mail order from big adverts in the
(US) Sunday paper:

THE AMAZING POMATO!!! GET TOMATOES AND POTATOES FROM THE SAME PLANT!!!
SAVE SPACE AND AMAZE YOUR NEIGHBORS!!!

The yield from each will suffer, of course. It's supposed to be an easy
graft, and I always thought I should try just because...

Others have posted similar replies, but: Potato seeds are very genetically
diverse. Like apple seeds, they don't breed true (Though there are now
some experimental varieties that do). The odds of getting a desirable
potato are lousy, but that's where Luther Burbank got the potato that bears
his name, and that's where new varieties come from. I was recently told at
the Seed Saver's Exchange convention in Iowa* in the far western colonies
that some of the agricultural colleges produce experimental potato crosses
and are always looking for volunteers to "grow them out" to see if any are
worth a second look. I suppose you'd get a credit in the footnotes if the
one you grew became a success.

*I posted a report in rec.gardens.edible; OT here, I fear.

Cheers!



Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G