Breeding potential of Belgian landraces of leek (Allium ampeloprasum L. var. porrum)

Western Europe is the world's greatest leek producing and consuming region. Belgium is situated in the centre of Western Europe and can be considered as a genepool of landraces of leek. Although the commercial varieties nowad ays take over the successes of Belgian landraces, this paper deals with the breeding potential of the Belgian landraces. Typing the Belgian landraces was done in an observation trial together with 50 cultivars. Clustering ana lysis revealed that 4 of the Belgian landraces were autumn types, 2 landrac es were of the early winter type and another 12 landraces were ranged with 6 commercial varieties to form the most winterhardy group of leek. For the important characteristics leaf colour and senescence resistance, the Belgia n landraces were better than most of the commercial varieties. Although, fo r economically more important characteristics shaft length and some disease resistance they scored low. Finally, in this trial, the Belgian landraces were high yielding, especially in the late season. But also in the early se ason (harvest in September and November) some Belgian landraces were in the top 10 for yield. At harvest in February 9 of the 10 best yielding winterl eeks were Belgian iandraces. This proves that the Belgian landraces were we ll adapted to the soil and climate of this region.