Unbalanced historical phenotypic data from seed regeneration of a barley ex situ collection

The scarce knowledge on phenotypic characterization restricts the usage of genetic diversity of plant genetic resources in research and breeding. We describe original and ready-to-use processed data for approximately 60% of ~22,000 barley accessions hosted at the Federal ex situ Genebank for Agricultural and Horticultural Plant Species. The dataset gathers records for three traits with agronomic relevance: flowering time, plant height and thousand grain weight. This information was collected for seven decades for winter and spring barley during the seed regeneration routine. The curated data represent a source for research on genetics and genomics of adaptive and yield related traits in cereals due to the importance of barley as model organism. This data could be used to predict the performance of non-phenotyped individuals in other collections through genomic prediction. Moreover, the dataset empowers the utilization of phenotypic diversity of genetic resources for crop improvement.