Today and Tomorrow 

peaches

To better support development of Florida’s stone-fruit industry, UF/IFAS established a satellite site for germplasm selection and evaluation at the Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce. This location typically gets about 75 chill hours per year, allowing for efficient selection of peaches suitable for South Florida production. The program also supports North Florida growers with research programs in Gainesville, Florida and Attapulgus, Georgia. Work at the Attapulgus site is a cooperative effort between UF/IFAS, the University of Georgia, and the USDA-ARS.

Since 2004, nine peach cultivars have been released, one nectarine cultivar, and two rootstocks. ‘UFBest’ - a yellow-fleshed peach with a chilling requirement below 150 hours- is an example of the program’s success. It has good flavor, excellent fruit shape and size, a high-percent blush, and excellent tree structure.

The UF/IFAS stone fruit breeding program is currently focused on developing peaches with non-melting flesh for the fresh-fruit market. In the future, the program will expand its work on white-fleshed peaches, which have received little attention compared with yellow-fleshed varieties. Several white-fleshed selections are currently being evaluated.

High Impact Releases

'Okinawa' (1957): This low-chill peach rootstock has been a very important subtropical rootstock in Florida and Australia. It is resistant to root knot nematodes (M. incognita and M. javanica) but is susceptible to M. floridensis.

'Flordaprince' (1982): This melting-flesh variety is the most widely planted low-chill peach in the world. It is well known for its low-chilling requirement and good fruit size.

'Tropicbeauty' (1988): This melting-flesh variety is another very low-chill type with an estimated chilling requirement of 150 hours. It is approximately seven to 10 days later in ripening than 'Flordaprince' in Gainesville, Fla.

'Flordaguard' (1990): This low-chill peach rootstock is the foundational rootstock of the Florida stone-fruit industry today due to its resistance to root-knot nematodes (M. incognita, M. javanica, and M. floridensis).

'UFBeauty', USPP14,784 (2002): This low-chill, non-melting-flesh variety has an estimated chilling requirement of 200 hours. Its fruit are yellow, very firm, and it has a very symmetrical fruit shape.

'UFSun', USPP14,764 (2003): This low-chill, non-melting-flesh variety has an estimated chilling requirement of 100 hours. It has been popular due to its high yield of early-season, medium-sized fruit of excellent quality.

'UFBest' (2012): This low-chill, non-melting-flesh variety has an estimated chilling requirement of 100 hours. Its fruit are very large, and it has produced consistently high yields. It is approximately seven days earlier in ripening than 'UFSun' in Gainesville, Florida. 

Research Contacts

 
José Chaparro

José Chaparro

Breeding & Genetics
Stone Fruits
Horticultural Sciences | Gainesville

                               
 

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