A new strawberry cultivar ‘Zijin Jiuhong’

Strawberry cultivars used in protected cultivation in China are mostly introduced from abroad. Japanese cultivars taste good but disease resistance is poor. European and American cultivars have good disease resistance but acid flavor. Therefore, the selection of high quality and disease resistant cultivars is very necessary. A new strawberry cultivar 'Zijin Jiuhong' was released by Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2015, which derived from the cross 'Jiu59-SS-1' × 'Benihoppe', made in 2009. It is a short day cultivar with excellent fruit quality, especially the attributes of flavor, aroma and color. 'Zijin Jiuhong' has high yield. Fruit is short conical, red, shiny, beautiful in appearance with few deformities. Flavor is sweet and the average of soluble solids content is 11.3%. The average fruit firmness is 2.04 kg cm^-2 when grown in the area around Nanjing city. The fruit is big and uniform, with an average weight of secondary fruit on the first inflorescence of 20.2 g, with a maximum of 45.9 g. The yield plant^-1 is 312 g. It has a vigorous plant and produces a good number of runners in the nursery. 'Zijin Jiuhong' has a medium level of resistance to powdery mildew and anthracnose. It has a high level of resistance to grey mold. This cultivar is suitable for strawberry protected cultivation in most areas of China.