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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Byron, Georgia » Fruit and Tree Nut Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #219786
Title: 'Scarletprince' and 'Julyprince' Peaches

Author
item Okie, William
item LAYNE, DESMOND - CLEMSON UNIV

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/25/2008
Publication Date: 7/21/2008
Citation: Okie, W.R., Layne, D.R. 2008. 'Scarletprince' and 'Julyprince' Peaches. HortScience. 43(5):1603-1605.

Interpretive Summary: In recent years the commercial shipping market has come to demand larger, more highly blushed peaches than many of the varieties traditionally grown in the southeastern United States. The peach breeding program of the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (ARS-USDA, Byron, GA) is one of the few programs left actively developing new cultivars for this region. The survival of the southeastern industry requires cultivars that are competitive in the market, as well as reliable producers in our highly variable climate. ‘Scarletprince’ peach has been released to provide an attractive, very firm peach ripening with ‘Redglobe’, that is well-adapted to the Southeastern climate. It has performed well in South Carolina and Georgia and is suggested for trial wherever ‘Redglobe’ is grown. ‘Julyprince’ peach has been released to provide an attractive, large, very firm peach ripening slightly after Redglobe, that is well-adapted to the Southeastern climate. It also has performed well in South Carolina and Georgia and is suggested for trial wherever ‘Redglobe’ is grown. These cultivars provide alternatives to southeastern growers for the ‘Redglobe’ – ‘Majestic’ ripening season.

Technical Abstract: ‘Scarletprince’ peach has been released to provide an attractive, very firm peach ripening with ‘Redglobe’, that is well-adapted to the Southeastern climate. ‘Julyprince’ peach has been released to provide an attractive, large, very firm peach ripening slightly after Redglobe, that is well-adapted to the Southeastern climate. Both cultivars have performed well in South Carolina and Georgia and are suggested for trial wherever ‘Redglobe’ is grown. Scarletprince resulted from open pollinated seed of ‘Blazeprince’ collected in 1986. ‘Blazeprince’ was an open pollinated seedling of BY81P2840, which was an open pollinated seedling of O’Henry. Julyprince resulted from a 1992 cross of L75-A50-20 x BY89P2787. BY87P2787 is an open-pollinated seedling of BY86P48 and is characterized by very firm, slow-softening flesh but poor texture when ripe. BY86P48 was a seedling from a cross of L72-4-20 x 7-28 with soft, low-acid flesh. L75-A50-20 and L72-4-20 were selections from the Louisiana State University peach breeding program formerly located at Calhoun, LA. The parentage of the large-fruited L75-A50-20 is unknown, whereas L72-4-20 was an open-pollinated seedling of ‘Harvester’. Selection 7-28 resulted from a cross of ‘Koyohakuto’ x ‘Okubo’ made by Dr. Masao Yoshida at the National Institute of Fruit Tree Science, Ibaraki, Japan. It was a low-acid, white-fleshed peach homozygous recessive for the “stony hard” gene. This trait curtails ethylene synthesis, resulting in a crisp fruit that can remain firm for 10 days or more after picking.