A new middle flat nectarine peach cultivar ‘Zhongyoupan 7’

Abstract: Flat nectarine is popular for consumers because of its flat fruit shape and hairless skin. How- ever, there are several inferior traits in the fruit, such as small fruit size, not closed blossom end, cracked stone and skin, which seriously restrict the development of the flat nectarine industry. There- fore, only few varieties were released in production at present. In our team, we started the breeding pro- gram of flat nectarine in the 1980s. Through multi-generation hybridizations, a series of new flat nectar- ine varieties with yellow flesh were released. Among them,‘Zhongyou Pan 7’is a mid-maturity variety, selected from the population between‘98-4-32’and‘Zhen 1-3’that were crossed in 2007. The female parent‘98-4-32’comes from the population‘Beijing 3-2’ב4-1’crossed in 1998, and‘4-1’comes from the cross population‘Sunago Wase’בShuguang’, which was crossed in 1994. The male parent‘Zhen 1-3’were selected from the seedlings of the elite landrace‘Biantao’. In autumn of 2007, the embryo of the hybrid fruits were taken out for culture and the seedlings were planted in the green- house in that winter. In May 2008, the hybrid seedlings were transplanted into the open field with a spacing of 1 m × 4 m. In 2011, the elite seedlings were selected and named‘07-5-11’. After that, they were grafted in the aged tree in the orchards of Wenxian County, Henan province. In the second year af- ter grafting, the tree could bear the fruits and the yield would be 10 kg per tree in the third year and 30 kg in the fourth year. Phenotypic survey showed that the fruit is characterized by large fruit size, with an average of 250 g and a maximum of 400 g. The fruit surface is all colored, and SSC reaches 15% with high sugar and low acid. The flesh is yellow with hard texture. The flower is pink, non-showy, and pollen is fertile. In Zhengzhou, the flower is blooming at late March, the fruit matrues in late July, and the fruit development period reaches 115 days. In 2015, the elite line was named‘Zhongyoupan 7’and got patent in 2017. Compared with‘Zhongyoupan 9’, this variety has a better fruit shape, a larger longi- tudinal diameter, a higher fruit weight, and a later maturity date more than 15-days. For young trees of 2 to 3 years old, the fruit setting rate is common. Therefore, it is necessary to control the tree vigor, which is helpful for flower formation and fruit setting. And with the developping of the tree, the fruit setting rate would be relatively high. Attention should be paid to thinning flowers and fruits to promote fruit quality. The main points are showed as below, thinning fruits 50 days after flowering, the distance between two fruits in branch should be greater than 25 cm, 2 to 3 fruits are left on the long branches, 1 to 2 are left in the middle branches, and no fruits in short branches and bouquet-shaped fruit branch Fruit bagging technology is suggested in rainy areas but of areas with little rain. It is suitable to selecte glossy paper bags with yellow outside and black inside. If the bag is not picked before harvesting, the fruit will be golden yellow appearance, without red pigment. However, if the bag is removed at 3 to 5 days before harvesting, the appearance of the fruit will be bright red.