Breeding report of a new pear cultivar Shuducui

Abstract: Shuducui is a new early-ripening pear cultivar with excellent appearance bred by Sichuan Agriculture University. The seedling was derived from a cross between Ninomiyahuri and Zaosu in 1990s in the experimental field. By artificial cross pollination, 105 hybrid seedlings flowered in 1997. The hybrid seedling 90-3-4 was initially selected as a superior individual in 2000 for its perfect appearance and high quality. The field trials were carried out at three sites of Sichuan province (including Ya’an city, Chengdu city and Guangyuan city) from 2014 to 2019. It was finally named as Shuducui in 2022. The young trees are vigorous, and the posture of the tree is open. The color of annual shoots is yellowbrown. The mature leaves are green in color and oval with long tail tip and round base. The leaf margin is sharp serrate. Each cluster has 5-7 flowers. The flowers are pink and the petals are spaced relatively to each other. The fruit is nearly oblong in shape, and the ground color of the fruit is yellow-green. The average fruit weight is 243.3 g. The longitudinal diameter of the fruit is 7.97 cm, and the transverse diameter is 7.87 cm. The flesh is white, crispy and juicy. The fruit texture is fine with few stone cells. The content of total soluble solids (TSS) is 14.7%, and total acid (TA) is 0.19%. The flesh firmness is 6.94 kg · cm^-2 . The fruit core is small and fruit quality is excellent. The cold storage life of the fruit is more than 150 days. The trees are precocious. Its full bloom occurs in early March, and the fruits mature in early July in Ya’an, Sichuan province. The fruits bear mainly on spurs. The sixth- year yield is 1667 kg·666.7 m^-2 with a planting density of 3 m×4 m. The development period of fruit is about 120 days, and the vegetative growth period is about 240 days. The fruit surface is smooth, and the fruit rust is less, which can be considered as non-bagging cultivation. It is suitable to be planted in similar ecological areas of plains and hills such as Sichuan and Chongqing. Orchards should be established on flat neutralsand soil, with good soil moisture and fertilizer retentivity. The spacing between trees and rows was 3 m×4 m, and the appropriate pollinizer cultivars are Hosui and Cuiguan. Orchard drainage should be strengthened during production, tree canopy ventilation should be improved, fungicide should be sprayed in time after harvest, and disease control should be strengthened. Premature defoliation and secondary leaf growth and flower must be avoided.