What are these doing on my potatoes?!

[BooseysMom]

Hi,
We have tried growing spuds this year but they failed i think due to the heavy clay soil of our new garden. I have left some plants in and noticed they have tomato-type fruits on them..see pics. I've never seen these before. Do they always do this?
Thanks

Are you sure they were potatoes? Rhymes with tomatoes?

They're the same family so if they fruit (ie flower and go over) it looks similar I think. Would be interesting to see if there are seeds in there and what would come of them if you planted them!

They are potato berries. Quite normal; they contain seeds. They are toxic though.

Yes they do always do this if left to it.

Just pick them off and compost them, they are as PP said, toxic and are not in any way edible.

yep
potato berries
toxic - don't eat and don't let children pick them

they are from the same family as tomatos

Would they grow potato plants if you planted the seeds?

Would they grow potato plants if you planted the seeds

Yes, that's how they grow seed potatoes.

But it really isn't worth it. I've done it and you end up with a mixed bag as they have already cross pollinated and none of the potatoes grown were of any significant size.

I remember the first time we got those on our potato plants at the allotment. I picked ours off and composted them as they are poisonous and I didn’t want anyone trying to eat one thinking they were something edible!

@Shannith.. ha! I honestly thought i'd got a weird potato/tomato hybrid

Thanks everyone for your replies. I def won't let anyone eat them. It must be because i've never left them in the ground for this long before

Thank you Alternative very interesting.