Peach cultivars and new IAC selections for mild winter

Abstract

Traditional peach production regions provide adequate chill for satisfactorily bud’s flower break dormancy, in cultivars there developed. However, considering the expansion of the orchards in mild winter areas and the expected global trends to warmer conditions, the local development of cultivars became relevant. Based on this background, this study proposed to evaluate the performance of 33 peach and nectarine cultivars and selections in mild winter climate. Features associated to the vegetative development, phenology, productivity and fruit characteristics were measured in nine seasons, and the data analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance. Significant correlations between features were remarked. The Pillai and F tests presented significant results, highlighting significant differences among cultivars for almost all features. Peach and nectarine genotypes showed genetic diversity that may be accessed for use as cultivars, or parental for crosses. ‘IAC Aurora 1’, ‘IAC Aurora 2’, ‘IAC Centenário’, ‘IAC Douradão’, ‘IAC Jóia4’, ‘IAC Ouromel 3’, ‘IAC Régis’, ‘Diamante’, ‘Eldorado’, ‘FlordaPrince’, ‘Premier’ and ‘Tropic Beauty’ were the cultivars with the best results. A large number of selections showed promising results, emphasizing, the ‘IAC 680-177’, ‘IAC 1085-27’, ‘IAC 785-9’, ‘IAC 2982-31’, ‘IAC 4682-45’and ‘IAC 6882-84’.