A new early maturing and big fruit apricot cultivar ‘Longxing No.2’

Abstract: ‘Longxing No.2’apricot is an early-maturing and big fruit apricot hybrid developed by crossing two apricot varieties.‘Goldensun’apricot is the female parent, which is an early-maturing apricot, with slightly acidic taste and nice shape.‘Lanzhoudajiexing’apricot is the male parent, which is a mid-maturing apricot, with strong aromas and big fruit. The fruits of‘Longxing No.2’apricot are approach globose with an average per fruit weight of 86.9 g, and the heaviest one is 107.5 g. The fruit peel is yellow, covered by slight red in the sunny side when it ripes. The surface of the fruit is fluffy and the fruit peel is medium thick. The fruit of‘Longxing No.2’apricot has orange flesh with delicate flesh texture and less fiber.‘Longxing No.2’apricot is an attractive and excellent fruit, has excellent flavor and quality, which has abundant juice, intense fruity aromas, pleasant sweetness and sourness, with solu- ble solids content of 12.2%, total soluble sugar content of 5.02%, total acid content of 1.67%, and vita- min C content of 2.90 mg · 100 g- 1. The fruit stone of‘Longxing No.2’apricot is oval, brown and de- tached from the flesh, and kernel is sweet. The flower is showy and the anther is light yellow with a lot of pollen. In Lanzhou, northwest China, the flower bud of‘Longxing No.2’apricot starts activities in the last ten-day of March, the first flower comes into blossom mostly appears in early April, the full- blossom stage mostly appears in the first ten-day of April and the flowering period can last about 8-9 days. The ovary gradually bulged after the flowers had fallen, the fruit matures in mid-June, about 70 days after blooming. The leaf buds germinate in mid-April and expand in the last ten-day of April. The leaves start falling in mid-October and completely fallen in the first ten-day of November, and the vege- tative growth of the tree was about 215d. The trees potential of‘Longxing No.2’apricot shows strong vigorous, semi-opening in canopy and easy initiation of floral bud. The results of self-pollination at flowering stage showed that the self-pollination rate for‘Longxing No.2’apricot was low and it was suggested to be self-incompatible cultivars. Only by planting suitable pollenizers can it set fruits‘, Golden- sun’apricot,‘Katy’apricot and‘Zhanggongyuan’apricot are suitable pollinating varieties for ‘Longxing No.2’apricot. The rate of pollen germination increases along with the temperature rising at 10-25 °C. Pollen will begin to germinate in 4-8 hours at 15 °C. The‘Longxing No.2’apricot mainly bore on the short and cluster branches in the fields, although various types of branches can produce fruits. It has characteristics including early ripening, high yielding and good quality, it can be stored in 6-7 days in normal temperature. It is suitable to be cultivated in both protected field and open field. The new early-maturing breed, has early maturing date, strong suitability to adverse circumstance, high and stable output, high quality fruit which has nice appearance. It is suitable to be cultivated and developed in Gansu and surrounding plains, hills and mountains, and potential to the other apricot suitable plant- ing areas of China.