CGN cereals collection

The collection

In short
  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Oat
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The collection consists of accessions of wheat, barley and oat. The basis of the collection is formed by the work collections of the former Foundation for Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP) and the Department of Plant Breeding of the Agricultural University of Wageningen (IVP). Additional material was added from other, mainly Dutch, institutions and private breeding companies.

While the cereal collection makes up a significant part of the whole collection of the CGN, there is not actively new material added to this collection. This is because the CGN nowadays has a main focus on vegetable crops. Nonetheless there are many requests for cereals, which indicates that the collection is seen as being of interest.

Regeneration and characterization

Because of the size of the cereal collection every year the seed of a couple of hundred accessions are regenerated. This is partly done by ourself and partly in cooperation with breeding companies in the Netherlands.

The winter types are sown in October and the spring types in March at a density of 350 seeds per m2, in plots of 1.25m2 and a row distance of 25cm. The seeds are harvested with a special combine or by hand. During the regeneration, the cultivated accessions can be characterised for a minimal set of traits, using descriptor lists developed by CGN (Koch 1985, Loosdrecht 1985). The wild cereals are regenerated in a greenhouse, with the winter types getting vernalized as seedlings in a cold greenhouse compartment. After flowering, the ears are wrapped in perforated plastic in order to collect the seeds, as the ears of wild cereals fall apart when seeds become ripe.

Evaluation

Evaluation data are available of resistance screenings for some important cereal diseases. These data can be found here on the website, or when browsing through our collection under the header Download. Furthermore, Triticum and Avena accessions from the collection have been analyzed in studies that were done by the Celiac Disease Consortium (Herpen et al. 2006, Salentijn et al. 2009, Broeck et al. 2010, Mujico et al. 2011).

Research

The seeds bags that are destined for distribution are stored at -20°C like the other seeds in the collection. In the past these so called user bags were stored at 4°C, but at a certain moment it became clear that for barley and wheat the seed quality deteriorated rapidly at 4°C. A paper was published about this subject by CGN (Van Treuren et al. 2018).

About the cereal collection papers on a number of topics were published (see references).

Regeneration of cereals

Seed dormancy

  • Cultivated cereals: no dormancy
  • Wild cereals: fresh grains may germinate irregularly or not at all.

In many cases when dormancy is present, germination is restored to normal after a storage period of about a year. Dormancy in cereals can be broken by periods of alternating temperatures.

Vernalization

Cultivated winter cereals are sown in October and are vernalized under natural conditions in the field during the winter. Wild winter cereals are sown in trays in the greenhouse in January. After germination the trays are placed in an unheated greenhouse for at least six weeks.

Crop phenology cereals

Crop phenology

Sowing

  • Cultivated winter types: October
  • Cultivated spring types: March

Grains are sown at a density of 300 seeds per m2, with 1.25m2sown. A plot normally consists of 5 rows of 1 meter, with a between row distance of 25cm. When an accession is susceptible to lodging, the plot is supported by sticks and a rope around the plot, once the crop has elongated.

Wild cereals are sown in the greenhouse and are transplanted into big pots with 16 plants per pot and 64 plants per accession. The plants are supported by a cane with 30cm diameter support rings. Wild cereals shed their seeds easily in contrast to cultivated cereals, so during flowering, the ears or panicles are wrapped in perforated plastic bags in order to collect the seeds.

Harvesting

  • Winter types: July.
  • Spring types: August.

The grains are harvested using a small combine, or ears are collected by hand. The product is stored in bags together with the field number and is pre-dried on a drying floor. Accessions that ripen unevenly in time are harvested in two times by hand. The wild species are harvested by hand collecting the ears and loose seeds in the plastic. The harvest is pre-dried in bags on a drying floor or in a drying chamber. After drying the seeds are separated from the straw in a threshing machine and seed lots are air cleaned to get rid of chaff and debris.

Pest and disease control

  • After sowing plots are covered with netting to prevent birds and mammals eating the seeds and seedlings. From flowering on to harvest the whole field is covered in a cage to keep birds from eating the ripening seeds.
  • Mildew (), Rust ()

View the cereals collection

CGN wheat collection

The wheat collection consist of almost 5000 accessions, of which the majority is cultivated Triticum. View the collection here.

CGN barley collection

The barley collection consists mainly of cultivated forms of Hordeum vulgare, and a small part wild material from 15 species. View the collection here.

CGN oat collection

The oat collection consists mainly of spring types and only a handful of winter types. View the collection here.

Gene bank for plant resources

View the database or submit a request for genetic material.

Search and request seeds

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Do you have a question about the cereals collection? Ask our curator.

HWW (Wouter) Groenink

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