Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Planting potatoes with bluebells

philip_hunter88599philip_hunter88599 Posts: 3
in Plants
I just wanted to warn people that we planted potatoes where bluebells also grew. We didn’t know about the bluebells as it was a new property. The potatoes were toxic to eat and resulted in 3 hospital admissions until we realised the link. Please do not plant root vegetables alongside toxic bulbs!  
«1

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited November 2023
    Hello @philip_hunter88599  and welcome to the forum 😊 

    The potatoes themselves would not have been toxic even if they grew among bluebell bulbs … plants don’t absorb toxicity from other plants like that ..,  it sounds as if you actually mistook some of the bulbs for potatoes and ate the bulbs. 

    I hope you are all recovered now. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • philip_hunter88599philip_hunter88599 Posts: 3
    I agree that they are unlikely to absorb toxins, but only potatoes were eaten. Big difference between potatoes and bluebell bulbs. It’s just that it happened 3x with those potatoes only. Strange. No chemicals used so all we could say is that the potatoes caused the illness. Maybe the bulbs put something in the soil when they are disturbed?  
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I agree with Dove - there's no way the bluebells could cause toxicity in potatoes grown amongst them.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    So no tests were done to see what caused the ill effects?  Perhaps it was something else entirely and having eaten the potatoes was coincidental. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    I've never heard this before thanks for the heads up.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    I've just looked up bluebell growing conditions and as they like woodland shade and I grow my potatoes where they will get plenty of sun I don't expect to come across the problem, however I didn't realise that they were so poisonous thanks again for the information.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    So as well as being an annual PITA, they're poisonous. 😒
    I don't see how they could transfer their poison to a nearby unrelated plant. I suppose cross pollination might do it with certain related species but you're never going to get a spudbell or a blueto
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited November 2023
    I agree that it was not the potatoes that caused the hospitalisation.

    For one thing, you can be quite sure that Agatha Christie would have used it as a plot point, if bluebells could poison other plants. See "The Secret of Chimneys".

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147

    To the experienced gardener they’re very different, but I can imagine that someone inexperienced might easily mistake a few bluebell bulbs for soil-covered new potatoes. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FellsmanFellsman Posts: 15
    You are absolutely sure there was no green on the potatoes yes? And you kept them cool & dark before eating? If I got ill after eating my own spuds that's what I would suspect.
Sign In or Register to comment.