Many of us associate potatoes with summer. Potatoes contain both vitamins and fiber, but at the same time conventionally grown potatoes are actually one of the most sprayed crops.

If we say potato leaf mold, what do you say? Potato leaf mold is much like our flu – a common recurring disease among potatoes. To overcome the disease, the potatoes are sprayed (the most common potato varieties in Sweden, Bintje and King Edward, are actually sprayed as often as every seven days during the growing season). Despite the fact that today there are other potato varieties that do not require as much pesticide at all, Bintje and King Edward are still the Swedes’ favorites.

So which potato varieties should you start looking for instead then? Well, by trying out a potato variety that is more tolerant of leaf mold and copes with smaller amounts of pesticides (or by buying organic potatoes where the use of pesticides is completely excluded, of course), you can contribute to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture. We recommend that you check out what applies to your country!

This is how the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation thinks we should choose potatoes this summer:

1) Organic potatoes, preferably locally produced

2) Organically imported potatoes

3) Conventional potato varieties that are more resistant to leaf mold (ie skip the traditional King Edward and Bintje varieties)

Or, you do as we did this year and 4) grow your own potatoes. We simply germinated some seed potatoes in the kitchen this spring, and when the shoots were 5-10 cm high, we replanted them in large pots that we put on the balcony. The feeling of pulling up the mashed potatoes a few weeks ago was hard to beat!