‘BRS Serenata’: a peach for fresh market

Abstract

Even though the peach tree was introduced in Brazil during the XVI century, it was only on the 1940’s that the first peach breeding program started in the country. Later on, other programs started being, until now, the largest ones, and the programs that gave more significant contributions to the peach crop development those from the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas and from Embrapa Temperate Agriculture. Presently, peach is cultivated not only in the colder areas of the South but also in the subtropics and high altitude areas of the tropics, due to dozens of cultivars released by these breeding programs. Peaches are sold entirely in the domestic market and in the largest consumers market, State of São Paulo, the preference is for white sweet flesh and low acid peaches with attractive appearance. The ‘BRS Serenata’ cultivar was released to fulfill a gap of white flesh peach between the seasons of ‘BRS Kampai’ and ‘BRS Fascínio’.