CUCUMBER GENETIC RESOURCES OF LATVIAN ORIGIN

The priority in vegetable plant genetic resource conservation in Latvia must be paid to varieties of local origin, especially to old varieties and landraces. During the past 40 years the number of maintained vegetable varieties of Latvian origin decreased dramatically and seeds of many local varieties are no longer available. Among them are the cucumber (Cucumis sativus) landraces ‘Tukuma’ and ‘Kraslavas’. The old cucumber ‘Dindona Zalie Kekaru’ is in an unusual situation at present. This variety was contaminated and became a population with a broad spectrum of phenotypic and genotypic diversity. Nevertheless, a few plants were found carrying some of the typical traits of this cultivar. No plant with the entire set of typical traits of this cultivar was found. The renovation of ‘Dindona Zalie Kekaru’ began by using inbreeding and was supplemented with isolated family selection.