Bug Resistant Potato Varieties Appeal to Organic Growers

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Photo by Megan Gerristen
Bug resistant potato varieties are a great option for organic gardeners, the 'King Harry' potato is early, tasty, and naturally resistant to pests and disease.

Try these bug resistant royal potato varieties for an earlier, healthier potato harvest.

Bug Resistant Potato Varieties

At their 104-acre Even Star organic farm in St. Mary’s County, Md., Brett Grohsgal and Christine Bergmark had given up growing potatoes because of nearly invisible hordes of leafhoppers that blow in from the south during March or April, causing the singed-brown leaf tips known as “hopper burn.” Then came Colorado potato beetles, and the two pests often caused complete crop failure.

But potatoes moved back on to Even Star’s planting list, thanks to the special pest-deterrent talents of ‘Prince Hairy,’ a Cornell University-bred variety that didn’t quite make the cut as a high-yielding commercial variety. But Jim Gerritsen, co-owner with his wife, Megan, of Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine, saw the variety’s potential after he read an article about ‘Prince Hairy’ written by Mother Earth News editor in chief Cheryl Long.

“Here was a variety with special appeal to organic growers,” Gerritsen says. He propagated it, and found a good market among pest-plagued gardeners and market growers. In Maryland, Grohsgal found he could grow ‘Prince Hairy’ under heavy pest pressure with only one or two early season sprays of Entrust, a certified organic pesticide.

  • Published on Oct 1, 2007
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