A new early-maturing chestnut cultivar Bailuhong

Bailuhong, a new early-maturing chestnut cultivar, was selected from the wild seedlings of chestnut in Yanshan Mountain of Xinglong County, Hebei Province by Xinglong County Forestry and Grassland Bureau. The mother tree is a 70-year-old chestnut seedling-tree growing on the hillside. In 1997, Xinglong County Forestry Bureau found the mother tree during the field investigation of the superior chestnut in Bagualing Township. The old chestnut seedling-tree has the characteristics of early maturity, high yield, high quality and barren resistance, and the maturity period is concentrated. After regional adaptability testing at three sites of Hebei Province (including Xinglong, Changli and Zunhua) over eighteen years from 2015 to 2023, it was finally selected in 2024. This cultivar is tall, the tree posture is upright, and has strong growth vigour. The biennial bearing branches are grayish brown in color. The size of lenticel is small and the density is intermediate. Leaf color is sage green. Leaves are lanceolate with serrate, spreading, and gradually acute apex. The average length of catkin is 16.7 cm and the numbers of catkin on each biennial bearing branch is 6. The shape of bur is ellipse and bur crack is cross type near flat. The spine bundle is hard and the density is intermediate. The nut color is reddishbrown, the luster is good, and the side nut shape is near round. The surface of nut is bright. The nut surface stripes are not obvious, the size of hilum is intermediate, and the nut neatness is high. The flesh of nut is faint yellow, fine and smooth. The nuts are perfect for stir- fry. Cooked nut taste is fragrant and glutinous. The nut average weight is 8.6 g, and each bur contains an average of 2.3 nuts, with a seed yield of 39%. The water content is 45.80%, the total soluble sugar, the starch and the protein contents are 22.38%, 43.50% and 4.52%, respectively, and vitamin C is 22.60 mg·100 g-1 . Fruit quality is excellent. It ripens in early September in Hebei area. Annual branches are strong, with an average length of 35.6 cm. The average bearing shoot numbers on each biennial bearing branch is 3.3, and each biennial bearing branch has an average of 2.2 burs. The trees have good adaptability, and it is resistant to barren and drought. This cultivar has high and stable yield, and there is no premature aging phenomenon. The nut has very long storage-life. The new cultivar is appropriate to be planted in mountains, hills and beach sand of the chestnut cultivation area of Hebei Province and similar areas. This cultivar can bear fruits next year after being grafted. Trees grafted after four years has high yield potential of 3293 kg·hm-2 . Orchards should be established on gneiss mountain and beach sandy soils. The plant spacing in the row and spacing between rows are 4 m×6 m. The cultivar is suitable for the natural open center or two-layer small canopy systems. The mature trees should adopt rotation renewal training and pruning technology.