Founding Clones of Low-Chill Fresh Market Peach Germplasm

Abstract

The source of the low-chilling trait in peach breeding is low quality, soft fruited, small, white fleshed peaches from south China such as ‘Peento,’ ‘Okinawa,’ and ‘Hawaiian.’ These were intercrossed with local clones to develop commercially acceptable low-chill cultivars in the programs in the U.S. (Florida), Brazil (Pelotas and Sao Paulo), and Mexico (Queretaro and Chapingo). The work at these various sites except for the work between Chapingo and Florida, have developed independently with only an occasional exchange of germplasm. The founding clone analysis and data from isozymes, RAPDs, and morphological analyses indicate that this low-chill germplasm is more diverse than the U.S. high-chill germplasm since it combines the U.S. high-chill germplasm with local cultivars from Brazil and Mexico and the exotic low-chill south China germplasm.