ADVANCES IN SINO-THAI COOPERATION IN PEACH BREEDING

Abstract

Peach (Prunus persica L.) is a delicious and healthy summer fruit in China. During 2000-2008, Sino-Thai Cooperation on research and development project between the Institute of Forestry and Pomology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China) and Chiang Mai Royal Agriculture Research Center (supported by the Department of Agriculture of Thailand) was carried out in peach breeding. This cooperation made some progress. The defoliation of new low-chilling requirement cultivars is later than the high-chilling cultivars but the blooming time is not significantly earlier in Beijing. In addition, cold resistance is not directly associated with chilled requirement. The characteristic of five low-chilling cultivars grown in the greenhouse in northern China were observed. The results suggested that ‘Desertred’ and ‘Sunsplash’ could be grown directly in the greenhouse in northern China. They are the good parents for breeding specific peach for greenhouse cultivation. To obtain enough hybrid seeds, the hybridization between high chilling (female) and low chilling (male) cultivars were done in Beijing. The hybrid seedlings were cultivated and selected in Beijing. The selected hybrids were grafted to mature plants in Thailand. At present, Sino and Thai together obtained 68 crosses in total with approximately 5,000 hybrid seeds. Approximately 3,000 seedlings were planted in the field of Beijing. Ten selections were obtained from the work by far. At the same time, the cultivated characters of a few cultivars grafted on the rootstocks with high-chilling and low-chilling requirement in the greenhouse in northern China were observed. The defoliating period of the latter is delayed and forming flower bud is easier and the time of blooming is about 15 days earlier. According to our results of the international cooperation, the cooperation model is effective and it can be a reference for the similar cooperation.