CGN crop collections
This section contains information about the CGN agricultural and horticultural crop collections. The complete CGN collection holds more than 23,000 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 is a relatively new collection that consists of 13 accessions collected in Armenia in 2012. More accessions will become available after successful 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 black salsify collection
Black salsify is a so-called forgotten vegetable. Before World War II, black salsify was a common vegetable in The Netherlands but became unpopular afterwards due to the way of preparation. It is a dirty job to prepare the vegetable because of the sticky juice which appears with pealing. It was for historical-cultural reasons that CGN started to establish a collection of (black) salsify.
CGN caraway collection
The caraway collection is being maintained at CGN since 2012. It consists of old varieties and a number of wild Carum carvi 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 exists of more than 40 crop groups. For the major part, the collection originates from the former Foundation for Plant Breeding (SVP), the Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT) and departments of Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU), now part of Wageningen University and Research.
CGN flax collection
The flax collection was established long before the Second World War by the Department of Plant Breeding (IVP) of the Agricultural University of Wageningen. Later the collection became a working collection of the former Foundation for Plant Breeding (SVP) at Wageningen and was utilised in flax breeding research programmes between1948 and 1996. The collection consists of 947 accessions of both fibre flax and linseed.
CGN forage crops collection
The CGN forages collection consists at present of 966 accessions of 13 different species: 11 grass species with 703 accessions and two clover species with 263 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), some accessions of the horticultural peas were however 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 broadly can 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 (N=90), inbred lines (N=140) and material received from other genebanks including CIMMYT, Mexico and the Institute for Agrobotany, Tapiószele, Hungary. The maize collection has not 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 existed mainly of onion and leek cultivars collected at 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 rationalise the collection by bulking duplicates both from onion and leek. This effort resulted in a considerable reduction of the collection (Boukema and De Groot 1991).
CGN potato collection
The potato collection is being maintained at CGN since 1995 (see history). It consists of wild and Andean cultivated potato species.