Recently, two flat peach varieties ‘Zhongpantao10’and ‘Zhongpantao 11’ have beenreleased by Lirong Wang’s peach genetics and breeding team of Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ZFRI-CAAS) and authorized by the Office of the Protection of New Varieties of Plants.
Zhongpantao 10 Zhongpantao11
Flat peach (Prunuspersica)is the Chinese traditional favorite fruit. However, some defaults such as splitting stone, thin skin, soft flesh and short shelf life are present in production, whichlimits the flat peach development in large-scale for a long time. Along with the peach industry and market’s fast and further development, the demandfor peach with special fruit shapeis dramatically increasing in the consumer driven diversifiedmarket. Hence, flat peaches have a good prospect.
The two new released flat peaches, which successfully overcome the above defaults, show a different fruit flesh color and ripening date. ‘Zhongpantao10’, is a white flesh flat peach with a maturity period in early July. Its fruit weighs 160-180g and fruit shape is symmetricwith a beautiful blush color that looks like tiger’s skin. It tastes sweet, cling stone, and has a good flavor with SSC 12%. Importantly, its firm texture makes a long shelf life.In spring, trees bear showy flowers. This varietyismedium vigorous and has a chilling requirement of 800h chilling hours (0-7.2 degree chilling model). In production, organic fertilizer is recommended to use for gaining a better flavor.
‘Zhongpantao 11’is a yellow flesh flat peach. The fruit maturity period is mid-July. Its fruit weighs 180-240g and fruit shape is symmetric with a bright red covering 60% fruit skin. It tastes sweet, cling stone, firm texture and has a good flavor with SSC 14%. In addition, it is aromatous. In spring, trees bear non-showy flowers. This cultivaris vigorous and has a chilling requirement of 800h chilling hours. In production, fruit bagging is recommended to gain high quality fruits.
These two flat varieties are favorite by consumers and growers after its release shortly. It is reported that the average price is 20 ￥/kg for high quality fruitof‘Zhongpantao 11’, amount to 600,000-750,000￥/Ha.In short, the two released varieties seem to have a good prospect and show a good capability to improve peasants’ income. In future, a bigger role is expected for the two cultivars in the diversified peach market.
By Chen Changwen
chenchangwen@caas.cn