Potato Berries

[muckdiva]

Last year my crop of Desiree spuds all had berries after flowering. I'm sure I've read somewhere on the Vine that these can be used as seeds, but my crop did get blight eventually so I didn't keep any of the berries. Would they have carried blight like the tubers or are they safe to use... Anyone know? Might be useful to know where the rarer varieties are concerned.

[shirlthegirl43]

I think I read that it can take years to get a crop from the 'berries' also, there is no guarantee that they will not have cross pollinated with other spuds.

[NSB]

I thought the berries were poisonous

[Sirius]

"The Potato is nearly related to the Nightshades, belonging to the same genus, Solanum. Its flowers are very similar in form, but larger and paler in colour than those of Solanum Dulcamara.

The stalks, leaves and green berries possess the narcotic and poisonous properties of the Nightshades, but the tubers we eat (which are not the root, but mere enlargements of underground stems, shortened and thickened, in which starch is stored up for the future use of the plant), not being acted on by light, do not develop the poisonous properties contained by that part of the plant above ground. The influence of light on the tubers can be observed if in spring-time young green potatoes are exposed to daylight, when it will be found that they become poisonous and have a disagreeable taste. "

from Botanical.com