Breeding of a new early-ripening apple cultivar ‘Jiping 3’

Abstract：New early-ripening cultivar‘Jiping 3’is an early-season apple with good appearance. Theseeding was selected from the seedling trees of‘Tengmu 1’in 2002 at experiment field in ShijiazhuangPomology Institute, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science. It was initially selected in 2002for its bright colors and very early ripening character. Through natural hybridization pollination, 256 seed⁃lings were got. After regional adaptability and successively observation over fifteen years from 2002 to2016, it was finally selected in 2016. The tree is vigorous with semicircular and open tree gesture. Youngbranches are rufous color. Leaves are bottle-green, flat and apex narrow, sharply serrated. Flower is pink,middle width, 5 petals in every inflorescence. Fruit position is regular and it has good fruit uniformity.Fruit is mainly subrotund, has yellow green peel, bright and clean surface. Its flesh is milk white, crisp,juicy, sour-sweet, and aroma. The average fruit weight is 235.7 g, and fruit shape index is 0.84. The con⁃tent of soluble solid is 14.02%, hardness is 9.87 kg·cm^-2. Quality is excellent. The fruit development peri⁃od is 95 d and it matures in late July in Shijiazhuang area. The main characteristic is constant maturity,no dropping fruit before picking, strong storage ability, high disease resistance, and the yield can reached 40 000 kg·hm^-2. It is resistant to drought, apple valsa canker, and apple fruit anthracnose, apple leaf defo⁃liation diseases, etc. The fruit has very long storage period, after storage the fruit aroma is quite strong.Suitable cultivation and introduction area is apple producing areas in Hebei province and other similar climate conditions areas. In different types of soil and climate conditions it can also grow well, and it hashigh yield potential. Orchard should choose flat and has good moisture and fertilizer ability area; and highquality nursery stock should be chosen to establish orchard, vigorous rootstock and dwarf rootstock areboth OK. Spacing in the rows and spacing between rows are 3.0 m × 4.0 m with vigorous rootstock and 2.0m × 4.0 m with dwarf rootstock. The suitable interstocks are SH38, M26, etc. The pollinizer is chosenfrom the main breed commonly used at present, such as‘Huayan’‘Changfu 2’‘Tengmu 1’‘Gala’‘Guohong’‘Jishen’and‘Hongqiuxiang’, except for‘NY543’. Appropriate tree structure is long andthin spindle or trunk. In forming period the fixed stem height is 1.2 m or so, pay more attention to prune,after forming period the amount of branches is controlled to 30 or so, aiming at controlling tree size andmaintaining tree vigorous.