Breeding report of a new later ripening apple cultivar Huafei

Abstract: Huafei is a late-ripening apple cultivar with cold-resistance and wide suitable-area derived from the cross between Golden Delicious (female parent) and Huafu (male parent) at the Research Insti-tute of Pomology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In 1998, over 300 seeds were bred through hybridization, among which 67 hybrid seedlings were cultured in 1999. In 2007, the plant num-bered B98-63 was found to have good fruit characteristics. In 2008, the B98-63 was recognized as an excellent variety and regional cultivation experiments were performed in Xingcheng, Suizhong of Liao-ning. The results of the regional cultivation test were good, and it was registered by the Ministry of Agri-culture and Rural Affairs in 2020. Officially named as Huafei. The tree of Huafei is open tree gesture.Matured leaves are medium-green, 5.90 cm long, 4.78 cm wide, biserrated, the shape of the tip is gradu-ally pointed, leaf blade outwards in relation to shoot. There are five flowers on each inflorescence on av-erage. The flower is pink, 4.00 cm across. The fruit of Huafei is nearly round. The fruit shape index is0.86, and the average fruit mass is 181 g. The fruit is covered with bright red, and the surface is smooth with no lenticels and fruit rust. The flesh is light yellow, tender, crunchy, juicy and clear fragrance. The peeled hardness is 7.0 kg∙cm^{- 2}, the soluble solids content is 15%, the soluble sugar content is 12.3%,the total acid content is 3.15 g·kg^-1, and the vitamin C content is 111.2 mg∙kg^-1. It tastes sweet, with ex-cellent quality. The fruit full growth period is about 170 d and it matures in late October in Xingcheng,Liaoning. Huafei has strong ability of storage. The cold storage of fruit life is six months, after storage,the fruit is quite good quality. The Huafei tree has moderate vigor, strong branching ability, easy devel-opment of flower buds and strong early fruit. Generally, grafted seedlings will bloom and bear fruit in the third year after being planted. Top grafting in the mature tree, the trees of Huafei will bear fruits two years later. The yield of triennial and sexennial grafted plants is 9.4 kg and 35 kg respectively. Trees of  Huafei have high yields and will not easily suffer fruit abscission The cold resistance of the branches of Huafei is similar to that of Golden Delicious. The resistance to trunk apple ring rot is better than Golden Delicious. Orchard should better choose neutral soil that is flat or less sloping and has great ability of fertilizer retention, as well as great drainage conditions. The spacing of plant and row is 3 m×4 m. Fertil-ize at least three times in a growth period, once in spring, June and August respectively. Bagging cultiva-tion is carried out 30-45 days after the flowering period, and the bag-removing is carried out from 15 to 25 days after the fruit ripening period. Simplify the management of the orchard, reduce short cut as much as possible in the process of pruning. In the pruning process, we can thin branches, put branches slowly, and pull branches appropriately.