A Twitter user claimed that the video shows tomato having strawberry inside and it was bought from the A101 market. The video was viewed more than 246,000 times. There have been humorous posts about it. In one of the posts, they ask the official account of the market how long the “campaign” would last. A similar claim was shared by another user on 10 May.
According to our research, a similar case was analyzed in an article published in 2010. Experts were asked their opinions after the tomato having something like a strawberry inside growing at the backyard of a house in the Galesburg state of America. One of the views given in the article is that simple gardening information may make you think that this situation may occur through pollination, but Assoc. Dr. Matthew Jonas Rhoades, from Knox College Biology Department, says that the cross-pollination between tomatoes and strawberries is very difficult. According to Rhoades, "Tomato is a real fruit pollinated by only one flower, while strawberry needs pollination of many flowers."
When we search “tomato” and “strawberry” words together, we find similar news and views recorded in Russia in 2015, in a garden of a house in 2016, and China in 2017, and these were reported in Turkey’s press. Another case was seen in Azerbaijan in 2018.
The user who made this claim on social media shared another photo. This photo shows the parted tomato. If the part looking like strawberry is cut, it appears to be a tomato.
We talked to Prof. Ruhsar Yanmaz, the Head of the Department of Horticulture in the Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University. Yanmaz said about tomato with strawberry; “This is impossible to happen. In this tomato, parthenocarpy, that is, fertilization has not been fully realized. Because the fruit has a gel layer (pericarp) and seeds on it when fertilization occurs. You can see this in a tomato you would buy at this time. There is no seed in the fruit in the second photo. The part cut is tomato itself.”
Özden Güngör, who is the former President of the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers, says that such a tomato may have formed as a result of incomplete fertilization due to the fact that it did not grow on time and under favorable conditions.
Teyit tried to reach the first account that shared the video but did not receive a response. No information was received from A101 to find out the origin of the tomato and whether the complaint was processed or not.
The season of tomato lasts from May to August. In other words, we will be able to eat fully grown tomatoes in the latter days of May. Among the tomato varieties, although there is a type called "Strawberry tomato", this name is about the shape of the tomato.
In conclusion, experts state that tomato with strawberry is impossible to grow. The post in question is an example of misleading content.
