2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In 2013, news spread around the world about the creation of an amazing tomato-potato hybrid in the UK. Western scientists named it Tom Tato, in Russia it is known as Tomidofel. What is this unusual culture?
A bit of history
At the end of the 19th century, Luther Burbank got a hybrid of potatoes with large yellow stolons. A by-product of this experiment was the impressive size of the white fruits that ripen when the flowers are pollinated. They resembled tomatoes in taste and consistency. The American breeder claimed that the excellent taste of the hybrid was superior to its immediate family. The fruits are called "pomato".
During the experiment, Burbank did not cross the tomato and potatoes in the original. The plant came out just like these two crops. The hybrid has not found application in mass production. The seeds did not always repeat the original characteristics. It turned out specimens with underdeveloped tubers, an ugly shape of the fruit.
In the first half of the 20th century, a Soviet pensioner, a fan of garden crops, N. Brusentsov conducted an experiment on grafting tomato on potato bushes at his site. The result was positive. At the same time, red, tasty fruits ripened on the plant, stolons of “second bread” in the ground.
In the years that followed, he complicated the experiment by doing three-tier vaccinations: Potato-Tomato-Potato-Tomato. In the middle of the 20th century, the hybrid took its rightful place at the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture. Academician T. Lysenko highly appreciated the results of N. Brusentsov.
In 1940, the newspaper "Stalin's Tribuna" wrote an article about a vegetative hybrid of an amateur pensioner. He planted a sprig of tomato in the axil of a leaf on a potato stalk, getting 2 crops per plant.
Modern achievements
In 2013, the British company announced its new invention "Tom Tato". The growers claimed that they received from one bush about 500 small tomatoes, similar in appearance to cherry tomatoes, 2 kg of stolons of large white potatoes. The developers did not use GMOs in their work. Each bush is grafted by hand and put on sale.
Technology requires patience, certain grafting skills. Even schoolchildren can cope with it. In Yamal, young enthusiasts independently raised such a hybrid in 2015. They gave him an interesting name Tomitoshka.
Production technology
At home or in heated greenhouses, potato seedlings are grown in a pot culture. Tomato seedlings are cultivated in boxes in the usual way. When the plants reach the stem diameter of 0.5-0.7 cm, grafting begins.
In the early morning, the top of the tomato is cut off at a 45-degree angle under the leaf. Excess petioles are removed to the maximum to reduce evaporation. Leave 2-3 leaf plates on top.
Make oblique cuts from both sides to the center, forming small shoulders at the top. The cuttings are dipped in a glass of water. The cut should not become aired, forming a dry crust.
The crown of the potato is removed at a right angle above the leaf (the diameter of the scion and rootstock is the same). In the middle, the trunk is split to a depth of 0.7-1 cm. A tomato stalk is inserted, tightly combining the slices. Wrap with a strip of film or the reverse side of electrical tape. The top is reinforced with a splint made of a thin stick. Fixing both plants firmly in two places. Water the roots abundantly.
The top will stick in the first 2-3 days. With complete fusion, the turgor will be restored, the bush will begin to grow. After 2 weeks, the grafted specimens are ready for transplantation to a permanent place.
The stems of the hybrids are tied to a support. At first, they are shaded with non-woven material. At the beginning of summer, the shelter is removed. After a month, the electrical tape is removed.
Care as for regular tomatoes. 2 times a season they spud the bushes, forming a ridge. They are fed with a complex fertilizer. Water as needed.
According to scientists, such plants have increased resistance to the Colorado potato beetle, late blight and other diseases of the nightshade.
The summer season is coming soon. There is time to prepare for the experiment. Maybe in the future, Tomitoshki will become the main crop of our gardens. Try on the role of the discoverer of a culture unknown in your area.
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