Breaking News English

A horticultural company is marketing a revolutionary new plant that grows tomatoes and potatoes. It is called the TomTato and gives up to 500 sweet tomatoes plus a healthy crop of potatoes. A newspaper joked you can now get ketchup and fries from the same plant. The company began research into the grafting together of tomato and potato plants 15 years ago. The company's horticultural director said the great thing is that the plant is not genetically modified in any way. He said he knew it was possible to graft the two plants together because they belong to the same species.

The director explained how the commercial idea developed. He said: "At the start, we thought it'd just be a novelty thing to do. But as the trials developed, we realised what we had produced was really high yield, had fantastic flavour and could be done commercially for the first time. The TomTato is called the "veg plot in a pot" and is selling for $25. It can be grown inside or outside, in a large flower pot or in a bag. Britain's Telegraph newspaper said double-crop plants like the TomTato could be extremely useful in the future as people grow more food in smaller spaces.