A new cultivar of chinese chestnut Mengsheng

Mengsheng is a high-quality, drought-resistant cultivar suitable for cultivation on poor, sandy mountain slopes. It was selected through seedling selection in Mengshan Liyuan in Datianzhuang Town of Feixian. The mother plant was a 100-year-old tree found on the hillside in 2002. The tree was found to have the characteristics of high quality, strong drought- resistance and low maintenance, and identified as the superior strain after evaluation. The tree has a moderate posture with an open canopy and semi- straight branches. The biennial bearing branches are strong, with each biennial bearing branch bearing an average of 2.6 burs, with a seed yield of 48.02%. The nut mass is 11.79 g on average, and the side nut shape is ellipse, the color is brown and bright. The kernel is faint yellow in color, fine- textured and smooth. The tegmen is easy to peel. The water content is 52.7%; the soluble sugar content is 22.45%; the starch content is 62.2%; the crude protein content is 4.7%; and the crude fat content is 1.3%. The new cultivar ripens in mid September in Feixian, and the fruit development period is around 105 days. The stripes on nut is not obvious, and the size of hilum is intermediate. The current-season shoots above the bearing branch is long. There are many big buds, and female flowers differentiate easily within them. After grafting, it can bear nuts in the 2nd year and enter the high-yield period in 3-4 years with an average yield of 2200-3000 kg·hm-2 . Recommended plant spacing is 3 m×4 m. It is resistant to barren soils and has strong disease resistance, and suitable for cultivation in the Yimeng moun-tain area and areas with similar ecological conditions. Orchard should be chosen on gneiss or granite weathered soil, which is appropriate to be planted in mountains, hills and sandy beached with a pH of 5.5-7.0.