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Comment by hinkley | Hacker News Reader

If memory serves, that fungus family attacks all nightshades, not just tomatoes, right? So you can't rotate potatoes or eggplant or you get the same problems.

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For anyone who didn't know this: tomato, tomatillo, potato, eggplant, pepper and tobacco are all from the same family Solanaceae aka nightshade.

There are many other plants in the same family (they have worldwide distribution), but a lot of them are poisonous.

Even more fun: It's possible to graft plants of different species within the family, so you can create a plant that grows both potatoes and tomatoes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomato

Wow, TIL. So The Simpsons' Tomacco wasn't that far-fetched after all!

And in fact potato fruit are poisonous! Just remember that when you grow potatoes and you get those "nice small tomatoes" on the potatoes that do bloom and fruit :) Luckily not many bloom and fruit usually, so most people that just grow a few potatoes for fun don't even get tempted. Then again they don't ripen red anyway, so I guess there's that to "save the curious".

EDIT: Anyone else have an unusually many potatoes bloom and bear fruit this year? I've never had this many before.

There’s a tomato plant that produces little purple tomatoes that don’t look that different from potato fruits. I knew someone who planted both one year and I still haven’t forgiven them for being so reckless.

The bigger warning to any potential potato farmers is to make sure you keep the potatoes underground; any tuber above ground will also have heightened levels of solanine. If they're light-skinned they'll also turn green from chlorophyll, which helps identify them a bit, but better to make sure they're well-buried.

(All my potatoes had a couple fruits this year, but I'm in Germany, so I have no clue if that data is relevant...)

That's a good one that people should know even for potatoes they buy. If green, discard.

But you are right, some people don't.

I think it is relevant because I'm in Canada and even though we now have a total of statistically irrelevant 2 anecdotal data points only it is something. Lots of fruit on potatoes in the same year on different continents more than 5000 km apart on a plant that usually has very few if any fruit at all. My very first years of planting potatoes I did not even have flowers.

I remember reading that when they were first brought to Europe via the Columbian exchange people were reluctant to eat them fearing they were also poisonous. Now it's hard to imagine, e.g. Italian cuisine without tomatoes.

They feared that because people were being poisoned. Pewter plates were common at the time and the tomatoes acid leached the lead out causing acute lead poisoning!

Even the “sweet” tomatoes have pretty close to the same pH, it’s just the sugars covering the tang, like soda or honey.

As a bitter taster it doesn’t matter how much sugar you put on the tomato it’s still too much. About the only thing IMO that you can put on a tomato to make it acceptable is a bacon cheeseburger.

Then any other equally acidic food on pewter plates should have caused lead poisoning too? E.g. if they ate salads in those days, with a squeeze of lemon juice?

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