A new semi-dwarf, mid-ripening and yellow-fleshed fresh peach cultivar Yuhuang 1

Abstract: Peach (Prunus persica L.) is one of the most important fruit crops, and the cultivation area in China ranks the first in the world. The cultivation mode, fruit yield and quality are directly related to tree architecture. According to tree height and branch angle, peach tree architecture could be divided into standard, compact, semi-dwarf, dwarf, pillar, upright, weeping, broom and curved twig. The standard peach tree is applied in the main cultivars that require more labor input due to its excessive vegetative growth. Therefore, breeding varieties suitable for labor-saving cultivation has attracted the main attention of breeders. Yuhuang 1 is a mid-ripening, semi-dwarf and yellowed-fleshed fresh peach, deriving from a cross between Huangshuimi and Zhongyoutao14. The female parent Huangshuimi is an early-ripening, standard and yellow-fleshed fresh peach, and the male parent Zhongyoutao 14 is an early-ripening and semi-dwarf nectarine. In May of 2013, 86 hybrid seedlings were planted in the research orchard of the Henan Agricultural University in Zhengzhou at the spacing of 3 meters between rows and 1 meter between trees in a row. Three consecutive years’observation indicated that among the 86 hybrids, 34 hybrids represented semi-dwarf growing habit. In 2015, 34 semi-dwarf hybrids began to flower and fruit, and through three years’observation on main fruit economic characteristics, 12-7-16, 12-7-6, 12- 7-83, 12-6-12, 12-6-15, 12-6-19 and 12-6-20 were chosen as the superior individual tree. Among the 7 superior trees, 12-7-6 showed mid-ripening, semi-dwarf and yellow-fleshed fruit with aromatic flavour and the main fruit economic characteristics were better. Then the 12-7-6 was named Yuhuang 1 and wastop-grafted in the autumn. The regional adaptability testing (from 2018 to 2022) was carried out in three sites including Zhengzhou, Xinyang and Xinxiang of Henan province. Huangshuimi was used as the control cultivar. Comparing with Huangshuimi, Yuhuang 1 exhibited semi- dwarf growing habit with small branch growth, and the tree height was nearly 2/3 of the control cultivar Huangshuimi and the main fruit economic characteristics of Yuhuang 1 were better. The ripening date of Yuhuang 1 in Henan was in mid-July, 7 d latter than Huangshuimi. The average leaf length and width of Yuhuang 1 are 15.4 cm and 3.4 cm respectively, with lliptic-lanceolate and about 1 to 2 reniform leaf glands. The fruit is big and oval with two symmetrical halves, and has a bulge top exhibiting as olecranon with shallow cavity and the suture. Under the bagging cultivation condition, the fruit peel showed beautiful bright yellow color covering nearly 100% fruit surface area and the fruit peel could be easily peeled and the core is freestone. The average fruit weight is 226.7 g, with the maximum fruit weight of 289 g. The fruit flesh is yellow. The average soluble solids content is 12.1% . The average total sugar and total acid contents are 11.8% and 0.29%, respectively. The average vitamin content is higher than Huanghsuimi with 16.5 mg· 100 g-1 in Yuhuang 1. Henan province and other area with similar climate would be the suitable cultivation area for Yuhuang 1, which was granted the new variety certification by the Variety Approval Committee of Henan Province in 2022 (S-SV-PP-007-2022).