CGN crop collections
This section contains information about the CGN agricultural and horticultural crop collections. The complete CGN collection holds almost 24,000 accessions. All collections can be searched and requested online and passport and phenotypic data can be downloaded per crop.
CGN asparagus collection
The CGN asparagus collection consists of 34 accessions collected in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2012. More accessions will become available after regeneration.
CGN apple collection
The apple collection has a special status since it is the only field collection of CGN. The collection is maintained as trees in an orchard at the Experimental Station Randwijk. Requests for scions can be made via the CGN website. The collection mainly consists of old Dutch varieties, material from Dutch pomological organizations and from the former research institutes of Wageningen University & Research. The first old apple varieties were already collected in 1976 in an effort to conserve varieties which were no longer used in commercial production.
CGN Beet Collection
Since 2025, CGN manages the beet collection, which consists of heirloom varieties, landraces, and wild species.
CGN black salsify collection
Since 2010, CGN has managed a collection of black salsify (Scorzonera hispanica), consisting of heirloom varieties and collected accessions. The closely related species Tragopogon porrifolius (salsify) is also part of this collection.
CGN caraway collection
The caraway collection has been maintained at CGN since 2012. It consists of old varieties and a number of wild caraway accessions originating from Bavaria, Germany.
CGN carrot collection
The carrot collection is being maintained at CGN since 2011. It consists of some landraces and in particular wild Daucus carota accessions collected in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Albania.
CGN cereals collection
The collection consists of Avena (oat), Hordeum (barley) and Triticum (wheat). The small grain cereal collection originated mostly from the former Foundation for Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP) and the Department of Plant Breeding of the Agricultural University of Wageningen (IVP).
CGN crucifers collection
The crucifer collection consists of more than 40 crop groups. For the most part, the collection originates from the former Foundation for Plant Breeding (SVP), the Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT) and departments of Wageningen University & Research.
CGN flax collection
The flax collection was established long before the Second World War by the Department of Plant Breeding (IVP) of Wageningen University & Research. Later the collection became a working collection of the former Foundation for Plant Breeding (SVP) in Wageningen and was utilised in flax breeding research programmes between 1948 and 1996. The collection consists of 954 accessions of both fibre flax and linseed.
CGN forage crops collection
The CGN forages collection consists of 11 grass species with almost 800 accessions and two clover species with more than 250 accessions.
CGN fruit vegetables collection
The fruit vegetables collection of CGN (tomato, pepper, eggplant, cucumber and melon) originate predominantly from the former Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT) where they were used as working collections for pre-breeding purposes.
CGN grain legumes collection
The collection consists of nearly 1800 accessions of Pisum, Vicia and Lupinus. The material originated mainly from the former Foundation for Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP), although some accessions of the horticultural peas were received from the former Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT).
CGN leafy vegetables collection
Leafy vegetables are a highly variable group of crop plants that can broadly be defined as vegetables grown for their edible leaves. However, the distinction between leafy and non-leafy crops is not always clear.
CGN maize collection
The collection originated from the former Foundation for Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP). The original collection of approximately 1000 accessions was rationalized by excluding hybrids (90), inbred lines (140) and material received from other genebanks including CIMMYT, Mexico and the Institute for Agrobotany, Tapiószele, Hungary. The maize collection does not have a high priority in the CGN system and receives less emphasis in the genetic resources activities. Detailed information on the collection has been published by Van Soest and Boukema (1995).
CGN onion and leek collection
The Allium collection originates from the former Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT). The IVT collection consisted mainly of onion and leek cultivars collected from Dutch seed firms in the framework of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (Van der Meer and Van Bennekom 1983). After adopting this collection, much attention was given to rationalizing the collection by bulking duplicates. This effort resulted in a considerable reduction of the collection (Boukema and De Groot 1991).
CGN potato collection
The potato collection has been maintained at CGN since 1995. It consists of wild and Andean cultivated potato species.