Resumen

GUTIERREZ-ACOSTA, F.; PADILLA-RAMIREZ, J. S.  y  REYES-MURO, L.. Plant phenology, yield and fruit characteristics of peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch.) Ana cultivar selections at Aguascalientes. Rev. Chapingo Ser.Hortic [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.1, pp.23-32. ISSN 2007-4034.

Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) of Ana cultivar were obtained from seed grown trees at the commercial orchard "San Carlos" in Aguascalientes State, Mexico. It has high fruit production and good commercial quality. Selection is a plant breeding method commonly used in fruit crops. It is based on the identification of outstanding individuals, coming from seed propagation, with a desirable trait as selection criteria. The objectives of this research were to characterize and to evaluate a group of Ana type peach selections. The study was conducted from 2000 to 2004 at the commercial orchard "San Carlos", in the Asientos County, Aguascalientes State. Plant phenology, fruit yield and quality were evaluated on twenty one selected trees originated from seed. For the statistical analysis of fruit yield and fruit number, a randomized complete block design was used, while for fruit characteristics a split plot design with 10 replications was used. Least Significant Difference was used for mean comparisons (P< 0.05). The average phenological behavior of the five years of evaluation was as follows: beginning of flowering, sprouting and harvest was from the Julian day 24 to 33; 28 to 39 and from the day 221 to 227, respectively. Fruit yield per plant varied from 16.1 to 41.1 kg; fruit number was from 128 to 308 fruits tree^-1, fruit weight ranged from 84.19 to 177.59 g; polar and equatorial diameter were from 4.89 to 6.51 cm and 5.23 to 6.91 cm, respectively. Pulp thickness was from 1.64 to 2.44; total soluble solids were from 10.53 to 12.75%. Finally, polar, equatorial diameter and seed weight were: from 2.93 to 3.38 cm, 1.99 to 2.38 cm and 4.48 to 6.77g, respectively. The outstanding selections were: S-59, S-67, S-65 and S-68.

Palabras llave : plant breeding; peach germplasm; peach selections; evaluation; genotypes; correlation.