Breeding of a new red pear cultivar ‘Hongbaoshi'

Abstract:‘Hongbaoshi'is a new red skin pear cultivar, which is derived from a cross between‘Bayue-hong'and‘Dangshansu'. The cultivar was bred by Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, Chinese Acade-my of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) in 2000. The seedling was planted in hybrid nursery of ZhengzhouFruit Research Institute, CAAS in December 2001. The seedling‘00-1-36'began to bear fruit in 2004,and was finally selected as a superior individual in 2006. After top grafting and tested for three years, itwas introduced to Xinxiang city, Puyang city and Ningling county in Shangqiu city in spring of 2010 for re-gional cultivar comparison trials. It was finally registered as a new cultivar(Register No.: S-SV-PP-008-2015) by Tree Cultivar Registration Committee of Henan province in 2015 because of its high quality,bright red skin and high yield. The tree growth potential of this cultivar is medium with upright trunk andopen tree gesture. The germination rate is strong and the branching ability is a little weak. Tree crownshape of this cultivar is spindle. Annual shoots are reddish brown, perennial branchs are taupe. Branch ta-peringness is big, mean internode length is 4.3 cm, lenticels are oblong and hoary. Leaf color is bottlegreen. Leaves are long ovate with serrate margin, sharp-acuate apex, and wedge-shaped base. There are 5-7 flowers with ovate petals per inflorescence, 4-5 pistils and 19-22 stamens per flower. The fruit isspindle. Fruitcore is small and has 5 loculis and 6-10 seeds in it. The average fruit weight, fruit lengthand diameter is 280 g, 9.8 cm and 7.8 cm. The fruit stalk is long, which average length is 6 cm. The fruitskin is smooth and nearly all red with small, rare fruit dots. Sepals are persistent, and the eye basin is shal-low and narrow. The fruit flesh is creamy white, fine, crisp and slightly hard. It is juicy, sour-sweet andhigh eating quality with little stone cell. The content of soluble solid, titratable acid and vitamin C is14.6%, 0.29% and 72.4 mg·kg^-1 fresh flesh. The sarcocarp hardness is 9.2 kg·cm^-2. The fruit develop-ment period is about 145 days, and can be harvested in late August in Zhengzhou. It can be stored for 20 days in normal temperature. And the flavor will be better after cold storage. This cultivar can bear fruits inthe third year after planted and has high yield at the fifth year, the average yield exceeded 20 kg per plant.The cultivar is suitable for slender cylindrical tree shape or slender spindly tree shape and trees should beplanted in rows of 1 m×3.5-4 m in sandy-mound land or hilly land with barren soil, or planted in rows of 1.5 m×3.5-4 m in the fertile soil. This cultivar is a hybrid with genetic relationship of Pyrus pyrifolia(white pear group), Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai and Pyrus communis L.. It has better adaptability and resistant tobrowning spot and pear scab. It is a good cultivar and suitable for planting inside the north and northwestof China and three northeast provinces of China.