Location: Fruit and Tree Nut Research
Title: Peach cultivar releases and fruit trait distribution in the USDA-ARS Byron programAuthor
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Submitted to: Acta horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 3/12/2019 Publication Date: 2/26/2021 Citation: Chen, C. 2021. Peach cultivar releases and fruit trait distribution in the USDA-ARS Byron program. Acta Horticulturae. 1304/29-35. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1304.4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1304.4 Interpretive Summary: Success of conventional plant breeding depends on optimal combination of crossing parents and selection of promising hybrids as potential new varieties, which are based on evaluation data. Dozens of peach varieties have been released and valuable mass evaluation data have been generated from the USDA-ARS high-chill peach scion breeding program at Byron, Georgia over the past decades. In this report, we summarize all the peach varieties released from this breeding program and provided an overview of the history and trend of variety improvement. We analyze peach fruit evaluation data to understand fruit trait distribution and selection tendency in the program, which may be useful for the peach breeding community. Technical Abstract: Conventional plant breeding is often daunting and costly, but it has a long history of success and remains predominant in today’s crop improvement programs. Success depends on optimal combination of parents to produce sufficient hybrids, and comprehensive evaluation of the hybrids to select potential new varieties. Decades of effort in the USDA-ARS stone fruit breeding program at Byron, Georgia have led to release of dozens of peach varieties and to generation of valuable mass evaluation data on peach fruit. In this report, all the peach varieties released from the breeding program were summarized to provide an overview of the history and trend of variety improvement. The reorganized peach fruit evaluation data were also used for statistical analysis to understand fruit trait distribution and selection tendency in the program. A normal distribution was observed for ripe date and fruit size. Other traits, including fruit set, external blush, attractiveness, firmness, and freeness, showed an uneven distribution toward the desired direction, which was expected since data was rarely taken on discarded hybrids. Correlations were also found between some of the evaluated fruit traits. The summary of all the varieties and peach fruit evaluation data should be of some value and inspiration for the stone fruit breeding community. |
