A Kiwi First and Potentially a World First!

A Kiwi First and Potentially a World First!

incredible edibles® based in the Bay of Plenty are releasing a new concept to the market in late September bringing double the fun and productivity to the home gardener. POTATO TOM™ is a new concept that brings together a delicious juicy tomato Gardeners Delight and a crop of your favourite eating potato Agria from the one plant! Andrew Boylan, General Manager of Tharfield Nursery in Katikati who helped bring the concept to market said “We want to bring new and exciting edible plants and ideas to the market. We believe it is always important to give the consumer what they want and with shrinking section spaces in many of our urban centres it makes sense to develop plants that help allow the home gardener to grow more with less space.”

A Kiwi first and potentially a world first - while the idea of grafting a tomato with a potato is not new this could be the first time anyone has successfully developed this combination at a commercial level globally. “We know that no one in New Zealand or Australia has done this before but can’t find any evidence that it has been done in other markets around the world.”

As both potatoes and tomatoes are from the same family the two plants are graft compatible and can therefore be grafted together, “it is the perfect combination that produces a good crop of both potatoes and beautiful cherry tomatoes, you get tomatoes in summer, potatoes in autumn” said Boylan.

So how does it work? As the crop of tomatoes grows and is harvested the Agria potatoes are developing below. Once the tomatoes have finished, simply dig out and harvest the potatoes. Just like a normal tomato it pays to avoid frosts; grow in a sunny spot in a fertile growing media, stake and train as normal. For those in apartments or that have small spaces the POTATO TOM™ grows happily in a pot on the patio or terrace adding curiosity and intrigue to its other ‘benefits’.  To achieve the best results gardeners can feed with incredible edibles® Dalton’s Potato Fertiliser and add Dalton’s Vegetable Mix to the soil prior to planting.

In 2012 incredible edibles® released the ‘Feijoa Bambina™’ which proved to be a huge success with the home gardener. The Feijoa Bambina™ was a hit with gardeners due to its compact size that produced tasty small aromatic fruits which one could eat the skins of. 

The release of this exciting concept, POTATO TOM™ will coincide with the Spring gardening season and will be available in garden centres across New Zealand as of late September. “We are confident this will be another hit with our customers as it ticks all the boxes. It will produce a great yield of potatoes and tomatoes and allows the gardener with a small space to maximise yield. People will talk about POTATO TOM™ at dinner parties as it is something different and a bit novel. As long as people keep gardening we will continue to keep providing new and exciting products to the market that complements what people are doing out there in the garden,” Boylan said.

ENDS

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