Pavlovsk Experimental Station
Coordinates: 59°42′51″N 30°25′25″E / 59.7143°N 30.4236°E
Pavlovsk Experimental Station (Russian: Павловская опытная станция) is an agricultural experiment station and gene bank that is part of the Institute of Plant Industry and situated in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg, Russia.
It was started in 1926 by agricultural scientist Nikolai Vavilov and contains an extensive collection of more than 5,000 varieties of fruits and berries.
The Pavlovsk station's collection contains more than 100 varieties each of gooseberries, raspberries, and cherries. It also contains more than 1,000 varieties of strawberries. More than 90% of the collection is found in no other research collection or genebank.
The collection is a field genebank, meaning that the varieties are stored as plants in the ground. Most of the species concerned do not breed true from seeds, and so the varieties cannot be stored as seeds.
The Pavlovsk station itself fell into German hands during the Siege of Leningrad in 1941–1944, but prior to the arrival of German troops, scientists from the Institute of Plant Industry were able to move much of the station's tuber collection to a location within the city. Twelve of these scientists died of starvation while protecting the Institute's edible collection of tubers and seeds.
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