‘Zhongyou 15’, a new early ripening and storable peach cultivar

Abstract: ‘Zhongyou 15’is a newly released early ripening and storable peach (Prunus persica L.) cul-tivar, which was selected from a across between‘89-1-28’and‘Zhongyou 5’in 1999 at Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute (ZFRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). A total of 50 seed-lings were obtained and planted in the peach breeding nursery of ZFRI (Guancheng district, Zhengzhou city, Henan province, China). Among them, a line,‘99-37-46’, was first selected in 2006 for its good eating quality, attractive uniform fruit sharp, lighten-red skin color and storable characteristic. After re-gional adaptability tests at three site (Xinxiang city, Yongcheng city, Zhongmou county) for 4 years from 2009 to 2012, it was selected and named as‘Zhongyou 15’in 2013 and licensed in 2018. The trees of‘Zhongyou 15’are moderately vigorous and semi- spreading, with highly germinating and branch development capability. The flowers of‘Zhongyou 15’are rose shaped with 5 petals. The sta- mens of‘Zhongyou 15’are highly congruent, and pistil was slightly higher than stamens. The color of‘Zhongyou 15’is green. The fruit of‘Zhongyou 15’is round and uniform, the ground of the fruit is white with the surface covered in bright red when matured. It’s large with average fruit weight 201 gand up to 250 g for the big ones. The fruit flesh of‘Zhongyou 15’is white with some anthocyanin, fruit texture is crisp. The fruit quality of‘Zhongyou 15’is excellent, with an average soluble solid con- tent of 12.1%. The full bloom date of‘Zhongyou 15’was March 19th, which was very similar to that of‘Zhongyou 13’. In Zhengzhou, the fruits of‘Zhongyou 15’can be harvested from middle of June to begin of July, with a fruit development period about 85 days. For cultivation techniques, summer and winter pruning should be used to balance the stronger tree vigor, and heavy thinning flowers and young fruits are must be done to improve fruit size and quality.‘Zhongyou 15’was certified (Yu-S-SV-AP-019-2018) by the evaluation committees of Henan province in 2018.