Bintje

Bintje is a middle-early ripening potato variety bred in the Netherlands by the Frisian schoolmaster Kornelis Lieuwes de Vries in 1904 from (Munstersen x Fransen) and marketed for the first time in 1910. The name of the potato, a diminutive of Benedict, was borrowed from one of his former students. Bintje plants are medium-sized and erect, with purplish stems, dark green leaves and white flowers. Bintje produces large oval-shaped tubers with pale yellow skin and yellow flesh. It has shallow eyes. The sprouts are purplish. This high-yielding variety is widely grown in Europe and North Africa. It is used for boiling, baking, and for fries, mashed potato and potato chips. It is the most widely cultivated potato in France and Belgium. Bintje is immune to potato virus A. It has moderate resistance to potato leafroll virus. It is susceptible to netted scab, common scab, Fusarium dry rot (Fusarium oxysporum), potato wart (Synchytrium endobioticum), potato virus X, potato virus Y, and late blight (Phytophthora infestans). Bintje is sterile, which prevents improvements in disease resistance through breeding. A mechanism to overcome sterility has recently allowed for breeding-based genetic improvements in disease resistance and potato tuber coloration. It was voted "potato of the year 2012".