A new late-mature peachcultivar Weiduanmihong

Abstract: Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] is one of the deciduous fruit crops in Rosaceae originated from China, which is popular in the world. China has the world’s largest yield of peaches, accounting for approximately three-fifths of the world. Fujian province locates in a subtropical climate and on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait. Gutian county in Ningde city, situated in Fujian province’s east coastal area, is about 100 kilometers away from Fuzhou. Late-mature peach denotes a fruit development period of 121-150 days. Weiduanmihong is a late-mature peach germplasm resource budded from Yihong. The mutant of late-mature tree was found in 1994, which showed late-maturity, high quality, high yield, large and sweet fruit, strong stress resistance, richness in phenolic substances and stable excellent characteristics. Comprehensive analyses of ISSR (inter- simple sequence repeat) molecular markers showed that Weiduanmihong and Yihong could be differentiated at the similarity coefficient of 0.92 with UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means) cluster analysis. And Weiduanmihong had different polymorphic bands from the Yihong. There are differences at the DNA level between Weiduanmihong and Yihong, showing that the Weiduanmihong is a bud- sport from Yihong. It has passed the professional certification by Fujian Forestry Bureau and it is called Weiduanmihong (S-SVPP-015-2021). Weiduanmihong has an open-center crown with light gray brown trunk. Leaf is long obovate-lanceolate with margin serrate. The flowers are rose-shaped with 5 petals. The optimum humidity at flowering stage is 67%-87%, and the most suitable temperature is 12-14 ℃. The fruit is near round with the apex slightly convex, and the suture line is obvious. The average weight of single fruit is 259 g. The ground color of the fruit is green- yellow with dark red color near the stone. The flesh is yellow-white, hard and crispy and semi-cling stones. The edible rate of the juicy and sweet fruit is 93.73%, the flesh firmness is 10.91 kg · cm- 2 , and the total soluble solid content is 12.6%-14.5%. As a high-quality fruit, the total organic acid (as malic acid), sugar (as glucose) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) contents are 0.15%-0.21%, 10.4%-11.0% and 10.2 mg·100 g^-1 , respectively. The peel of Weiduanmihong fruit contains higher amounts of phenolic compounds and other antioxidants than the flesh. The total phenol content in the peel and flesh are 1.65 mg · g^{- 1} and 0.66 mg · g^{- 1} , respectively. The flavonoid content in the peel and flesh are 1.53 mg · g-1 and 0.47 mg · g^-1 , respectively. The total anthocyanin content in the peel and flesh are 18.03 mg · kg^{- 1} and 0.41 mg · kg^{- 1} , respectively. The main anthocyanin in peel is cyanidin and pelargonidin, while main anthocyanin in flesh is cyanidin by HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography). The contents of cyanidin in peel and flesh are 75.89 mg · kg^{- 1} and 0.87 mg · kg^{- 1} , and the content of pelargonidin in peel is 9.89 mg · kg^{- 1} . In Ningde, Fuzhou and Nanping city, Weiduanmihong peach starts bud break in late February, the early flowering period and full flowering stage are in early March, and the flowering ends in the mid-March. The peach fruit development period lasts for about 135 days, which is a typical late-mature peach variety. The fruit maturity stage ranges from late July to early August, which is 10-15 days later than that of Yihong. Defoliating period is in late November. The yield per 666.7 m² reaches up to 2 402.66 kg (26 peaches, 5 a plants). As a fresh fruit in off-season, Weiduanmihong peach fruit has a good economic value and is popular with consumers for its high nutrition. Planting hole is 1.0 m ×1.0 m ×0.8 m and the distance between peach trees is 4-5 meters. Leaf- curl, brown rot, anthracnose, bacterial shot-hole, gummosis, white mould and brown rust are the common diseases of Weiduanmihong. The common insect pests include aphid, hawthorn spider mite, white mulberry scale, long-horned beetle, peach borer, oriental fruit moth, fruit fly, and fruit-piercing moth. At present, the cultivation area of Weiduanmihong peach is about 200 hm2 , and the annual output of Weiduanmihong amounts up to 3000 tons. Weiduanmihong has strong resilience, and this cultivar is suitable for planting in peach planting area of Fujian province. It also should be paid attention to pest and disease control. Integrated agricultural technology including clearing the orchard in winter, enhancing the tree resistance by the application of organic fertilizer, etc. is encouraged to control the pests and diseases of Weiduanmihong.