SELECTION OF HYBRID SEEDLINGS BETWEEN THE JAPANESE HIGH-CHILL 'HAKUHO' AND LOW-CHILL PEACH CULTIVARS FOR FORCING CULTURE

To select the lower chilling peaches (Prunus persica) with high fruit quality suitable for early forcing culture, the characteristics of hybrid seedlings between the Japanese high-chill cultivar ‘Hakuho’ (HKH) (900 chilling hours; 110 days for maturation) and low-chill peach cultivars; ‘Flordaprince’ (FLP) (150CH;80D), ‘Flordaglo’ (FLG) (200CH;85D), ‘Tropic Snow’ (TPS) (200CH;93D), ‘EarliGrande’ (EGD) (200CH;75D) and ‘Angkhang Red’ (AKR) (200CU) were evaluated. Under natural conditions, the flowering of the cross-seedlings occurred 20 days in 2003, 10 days in 2004 and 7 days in 2005 earlier than HKH. Fruit maturation among the seedlings occurred from mid June to late August. The fruit of HKH x FLP and HKH x FLG matured mid June to late July, earlier than those of HKH x TPS. Fruit weight ranged from 50 to 234 g, total soluble solids content varied from 8 to 16.9%, and the titratable acidity varied from 0.14 to 1.27%. The chilling requirement of the most seedlings was estimated below 500 CU. Five promising seedlings were selected from the progenies of HKH x FLG, HKH x FLP, and HKH x EGD.