A new soft-seeded pomegranate cultivar ‘Yunongzaoyan’

Abstract:‘Yunongzaoyan’is an early-mid pomegranate which is a bud mutation of‘Tunisia soft-seed-ed’pomegranate bred by Henan Agriculture University with excellent appearance, flavor, and cold-re-sistance. The superior individual of varieties was found when survey of resource was conducted in 2010, and it was entitled‘10-2’which exhibited soft-seeded, more cold-resistance than the stock plant, sweat and sour taste and earlier maturation stage. The scion was grafted onto‘Qiancenghua’pomegran- ate to conduct the cultivar comparison trial with‘Tunisia soft-seeded’pomegranate as control in 2011 and to plant in four sites in Henan Province, including Xingyang, Nanyang, Xinzheng, Wuyang to con- duct the regional trial in 2013. After the trials, the characteristics of ‘Yunongzaoyan’were obviously showed superior to control cultivar. The tree is medium with semicircular crown and semi-open tree gesture. Leaves are long-ovate to long lanceolate with the rate of 3∶1 of length∶width. Flower is red with six pedals mostly. Fruit position is mostly at the top of annual branch or leaf axil. The fruit shape of‘Yunongzaoyan’is nearly spherical, and its shape index is 0.84. The average individual fruit weight is 300 g and could be up to 680 g under good cultivation and management. The ground color of the fruit is yellow-green covered with over 70% rose-red blush. The calyx tube is shorter and the sepals are open or semi-open. The aril is pink and the hundred-aril mass is 37.0 g. The juice yield is 84.6% and its content of soluble solid is 17.1%. The pH of the juice is 3.4 and vitamin C content is 12.6 mg·100 g^-1. The flavor is sweet and sour. The hardness of the seed is 3.26 kg·cm -2, belonging to soft-seeded cultivar. The fruit development period is about 120 d and it matures at the mid-late September in Xingyang area in  Henan. It is resistant to drought and more tolerance to cold. The fruit has 60 days storage-life when stored at 4 ℃, and the shelf life is about 20 days. Suitable cultivation area is the south of the Yellow River suitable for cultivation soft-seeded pomegranate in Henan. This variety can bear fruits next year after planted, and has high yield potential. Orchard should be high terrain and well ventilated; spacing in the rows and spacing between rows are (2-3) m×(3-5) m according to its soil fertility and topography.