Breeding report of a new red pear cultivar ‘Xianghongli'

Abstract: ‘Xianghongli'is an mid-ripening pear with red appearance. The seeding was selected fromseeds of Red D'Anjou radiated by γ-Co60.‘Xianghongli'was initially selected in 2005 for its bright col-ors and excellent sour–sweet flavour. After regional adaptability testing at three sites(including Changli, Luannan and Botou in Hebei) from 2008 to 2013, it was finally examined and named as‘Xianghongli'in2013. The cultivar is a tall tree, with a height of 3.31 m at 6 years old. The tree is vigorous with ramosecrown and upright tree gesture. The average length of one year old branches is 34.92 cm and the rough-ness of which is 0.472 cm. The branch is reddish brown in color. Leaves are elliptic, acuminate, with aver-age 5.802 cm length and 3.389 cm width. Flowers are pale pink. The relative position of petals is overlap.The petal shape is oval with more pollen. The average setting rate of single flower is 24.17% and the inflo-rescence forming fruit rate is 100% under the condition of natural pollination. The average single fruitweight is 216.0 g, with mainly wide-necked pear formed. The ground color of peel is yellow with 80%bright red of cover color. The flesh is white, melting, soft and juicy, sour-sweet, strongly fragrant, littlestone cell and small core. The soluble solid content is 12.5%. The soluble sugar content is 10.78%. The ti-tratable acid content is 0.097%. The fruit quality is excellent. The fruit development period is 125-130 dand the ripe stage is at the end of August in Changli area, Hebei province. It is easy to form flower onshort branches, and possesses large number of flower buds. The properties of early-bearing and high-yielding is better. It begins bearing 2 years after planting and the productivity per 667 m2 is 1800 kg at 5years after planting. It is resistant to fruit phellem, pear scab, cold, etc. The shelf life of fruit is over 20 d.The fruit can be stored for 5 months in refrigeration condition. Suitable cultivation area is Qinhuangdao,Tangshan, Cangzhou in Hebei, Jingtai in Gansu, Kuerle in Xinjiang, Beijing, Taiyuan in Shanxi and simi-lar area. Xianghongli has the high-yield potential and can be extended to the most area of Northern Chi-na. The orchard should with flat ground, neutral or sub-acidity soil, and high moisture and fertilizer reten-tion. The planting space in the rows and plants are 2-3 m×3-4 m. The pollination cultivars are better with‘Huangguan',‘Lvbaoshi',‘Xuehuali',‘Xueqing', etc. The suitable tree shape is cylindrical and spin-dle. As the young trees grow vigorously, the erected branches should be pulled down. The pruning technol-ogy should be less cut back, leaving long branches, and with other pinching, bending or back spune meth-ods to control the tree size and growth vigorous.