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'TomTato' tomato and potato plant unveiled in UK

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Captain Howdy said:
I tend to agree with this statement, but I wonder if the exact same thing was said when they were developing grafted trees, and we can see how that turned out.

It is easy to forget, living here in the United States, that some places are really strapped for land and every little thing available to increase useful density of land might eventually win in a cost/benefit scenario.

There are lots of useful plants in the [/i]solanaceae[/i] family and I am glad they are looking at options, that seem utterly ridiculous at the moment, to make sure these staple foodcrops will stick around.
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grafting on trees makes perfect sense since it is a multi year payback plant. Grass type grafting is a waste of time since they are one year deals.
 
sdifox said:
grafting on trees makes perfect sense since it is a multi year payback plant. Grass type grafting is a waste of time since they are one year deals.
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No offense to you, but you were equating grafting with genetic modification at the beginning of the thread. While I still agree with your general assessment, I still think it is short sighted to write something off without proper knowledge and cost/benefit of the craziness in question.

To bring another example, there is rhizome cloning and other reproduction methods that were probably written off as boutique or science fiction but eventually became cost effective to use large scale. I would be surprised to learn if this crop makes it to that level, but the main reason I stay alive is to be surprised.

If you think about it large scale, it is no different than people going to their nearest Lowes/Home Depot to buy their plants. Starting from seed is pretty unheard of in urban/suburban settings.

Grass plants and nightshades are worlds apart, by the way.
 
Captain Howdy said:
No offense to you, but you were equating grafting with genetic modification at the beginning of the thread. While I still agree with your general assessment, I still think it is short sighted to write something off without proper knowledge and cost/benefit of the craziness in question.

To bring another example, there is rhizome cloning and other reproduction methods that were probably written off as boutique or science fiction but eventually became cost effective to use large scale. I would be surprised to learn if this crop makes it to that level, but the main reason I stay alive is to be surprised.

If you think about it large scale, it is no different than people going to their nearest Lowes/Home Depot to buy their plants. Starting from seed is pretty unheard of in urban/suburban settings.

Grass plants and nightshades are worlds apart, by the way.
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Grafting is gene manipulation...just not the precise, test tube type. Graft hybridization is what it is called.
 
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sdifox said:
Grafting is gene manipulation...just not the precise, test tube type. Graft hybridization is what it is called.
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Well yeah, then we are just arguing semantics. Technically, selective breeding is gene manipulation as well, but it is the foundation of agrarian society and dates back thousands of years.

I don't get the impression you are a hippie, and I am pretty sure you are not arguing against gene modification, but in case you are, it is very easy to turn your nose up at something that has little impact on your life. If it comes down to eating genetically modified food or starving to death, you (and more than a billion others) would choose to eat the GMO crop, correct?
 
sdifox said:
Grafting is gene manipulation...just not the precise, test tube type. Graft hybridization is what it is called.
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genetic+modification

Main Entry: genetic modification
Part of Speech: n
Definition: any alteration of genetic material, as in agriculture, to make them capable of producing new substances or performing new functions; also called genetic engineering, genetic manipulation, gene splicing, [ gene technology ], recombinant DNA technology
Usage: science
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/graft?s=t&ld=1171

graft

  Use Graft in a sentence

graft

1 [graft, grahft] Show IPA
noun 1. Horticulture . a. a bud, shoot, or scion of a plant inserted in a groove, slit, or the like in a stem or stock of another plant in which it continues to grow.

b. the plant resulting from such an operation; the united stock and scion.

c. the place where the scion is inserted.

2. Surgery . a portion of living tissue surgically transplanted from one part of an individual to another, or from one individual to another, for its adhesion and growth.

3. an act of grafting.
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Grafting != gene manipulation
 
Captain Howdy said:
Well yeah, then we are just arguing semantics. Technically, selective breeding is gene manipulation as well, but it is the foundation of agrarian society and dates back thousands of years.

I don't get the impression you are a hippie, and I am pretty sure you are not arguing against gene modification, but in case you are, it is very easy to turn your nose up at something that has little impact on your life. If it comes down to eating genetically modified food or starving to death, you (and more than a billion others) would choose to eat the GMO crop, correct?
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No, I am not against gene manipulation. I know all of our plants are at the very minimum selectively bred for particular traits, which is gene manipulation the old fashioned way. I am just saying it is still gene manipulation. Just tired of the "organic" crowd.
 
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sdifox said:
No, I am not against gene manipulation. I know all of our plants are at the very minimum selectively bled for particular traits, which is gene manipulation the old fashioned way. I am just saying it is still gene manipulation. Just tired of the "organic" crowd.
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Me too. I used to meet a lot of hippies when I went around to a few WWOOF farms. Nothing worse than being lectured about food by people floating on clouds and never having to think about facing starvation. If you ever find yourself at odds with these folk, just throw out the name Norman Borlaug. Chances are they will have not heard of him, but he is the golden standard of why GMO crops are not only ok, they are necessary as ground work to try to stamp out the rest of humanity's problems such as corruption and greed.
 
SagaLore said:
Tomacco would have been better...
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Ikr

They are the same plant family, all of them.

They need a tomtatoaccoeggplant that shoots bell papers out its arse.

Plants from Solanaceae don't sit well with me which is why I know all of them.
 
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Captain Howdy said:
Me too. I used to meet a lot of hippies when I went around to a few WWOOF farms. Nothing worse than being lectured about food by people floating on clouds and never having to think about facing starvation. If you ever find yourself at odds with these folk, just throw out the name Norman Borlaug. Chances are they will have not heard of him, but he is the golden standard of why GMO crops are not only ok, they are necessary as ground work to try to stamp out the rest of humanity's problems such as corruption and greed.
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On the other hand I totally despise Monsanto.
 
Old "news." I read about these plants when I was a kid in the '80s or early '90s. I thought it was common knowledge that you could splice the two. It's the example I always used to describe what was possible with splicing.
 
CZroe said:
Old "news." I read about these plants when I was a kid in the '80s or early '90s. I thought it was common knowledge that you could splice the two. It's the example I always used to describe what was possible with splicing.
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I think the news is more someone actually selling the grafted plant to general public.
 
sdifox said:
On the other hand I totally despise Monsanto.
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They are definitely a bunch of bullies and patent trolls, and their greed surrounding something as critical as the food supply is definitely enough to make sane people sick to their stomach.
 
I remember seeing ads, back when I was growing up, about a plant that would grow both tomatoes and potatoes. Since that was more than 3 decades ago, long before genetic modification (GMO's), I'm pretty sure this is nothing new, and wasn't anything more than plant grafting back then, too. :hmm:
 
marvdmartian said:
I remember seeing ads, back when I was growing up, about a plant that would grow both tomatoes and potatoes. Since that was more than 3 decades ago, long before genetic modification (GMO's), I'm pretty sure this is nothing new, and wasn't anything more than plant grafting back then, too. :hmm:
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Time to pull old old crap and sell to new suckers duh :awe:
 
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