Breeding report of a new fresh-eating and processing plum cultivar ‘Xinghuali’ (Prunus salicina)

Abstract:‘Xinghuali’(Prunus salicina) is a new plum cultivar selected from bud mutation of‘San- huali’, a landrace from Guangdong. In 2007, a bud variation of the local plum cultivar‘Sanhuali’, gen- erated from the root turion, was discovered in Xingning, Guaongdong province. It was found that‘Xing- huali’plum shows stable genetic traits and excellent economic performance through years of character- istics observations and tests. It was finally selected in 2019. In the same year, we applied and passed the examination and approval of Guangdong crop variety Approval Committee. The tree is vigorous with open tree gesture. The color of perennial branch is grey-brown. The one year branch is smooth with no pubescence. The internode length is 1.62 cm. The leaf is from reverse elliptic to reverse lanceolate in shape, 7.5 cm long, 4.4 cm wide, sharply serrated. The flower is with five petals and is white in color. The fruit shape of‘Xinghuali’plum is near globose with attract appearance and the average fruit weight is 60 g. The fruit is symmetry, the apex is flat or light hollow, the suture is shallow, and the cavity is deep with medium width. The color of peel turns to be bright red at full ripening stage. The peel is thin and covered with heavy skin powder. The flesh is red in color, and delicate in texture, with low fiber content.‘ Xinghuali’plum is clingstone and the stone is oblate ovate in shape, the average dry stone weight is approximately 1.1 g. The content of soluble solid is 9.1%, the content of total sugar is 5.9%, the total acid content is 1.02%, and the vitamin C content is 6.53 mg·100 g-1. In the areas with altitude below 200 meters of Xingning, Guangdong,‘Xinghuali’plum starts germinating in late January, the  early blossom date is in early February, the full blossom date is in middle February. The leaf bud starts germinating in late February and tree defoliation starts in mid-November. The fruit ripening is from late May to middle June, the fruit growth period is about 110 days. The fruits are mainly bore on bouquet spurs and short fruiting branches. Fruiting starts at the second year after grafting and the yield of a six- year tree reaches up to 80 kg‘. Xinghuali’plum is a new middle-ripening cultivar which exhibits strong suitability to high temperature circumstances, and is highly and stably productive with large fruit. Suit- able cultivation area is the subtropical mountain area. Orchard should choose neutral sandy soil which is flat and has ability of moisture and fertilizer retention. The spacing in the rows and spacing between rows are 4 m×5 m. The configuration of pollinizer should include about 10% other‘Sanhuali’plum cultivars.