Madeleine pear

Aliases: Bailaifa, Qifa pear, Kaihua pear, Fuyang pear. A French cultivar, an excellent very early-maturing variety, ripening about 1 week later than the small Fuyang pear. Widely cultivated around the world; in China it is grown in small quantities in the Shandong Peninsula, Liaoning, Shanxi, Zhengzhou in Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, **, Gansu: Sichuan, Qinghai, Ningxia, Jiangsu and other provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions), and trial plantings have been introduced in Guizhou Province.

The fruit is small or medium. The average single fruit weight is 6-112 g, with large ones reaching 147 g. The fruit is mostly gourd-shaped, often with a protrusion on one side. The skin is yellow-green, with a red blush on the sunny side; the surface is smooth with a waxy luster, and the fruit dots are medium-sized and inconspicuous, giving an attractive appearance. The fruit stalk is 2.9 cm long and 2.8 mm thick; the stalk cavity is nearly absent. The sepals are persistent; the calyx cavity is medium-sized, shallow and broad, with wrinkles. The core is small, with 5 locules. The flesh is white, fine-textured, becoming soft after 3-5 days of ripening; it is very juicy, smooth, and melts in the mouth, with a sweet-sour taste and a slight aroma, of superior quality. It contains 14.6%-16% soluble solids. In Xingcheng, Liaoning, the fruit is harvested in mid-July, maturing extremely early. The fruit does not store well and can be kept at room temperature for about half a month. The fruit is mainly for fresh eating. The tree vigor is moderate, with dense, slender and supple branches and drooping leaves. A 5-year-old tree is 3.1 m tall. Trunk circumference 20 cm, canopy diameter 2.45 m x 2.55 m. Budding ability is strong, with 72.54% of buds sprouting; branching ability is moderate, generally with 2-3 long shoots emerging below the pruning cut. The age of first fruiting is mid-to-late; generally trees bear fruit 4-5 years after planting. All types of fruiting branches can bear fruit, but short fruiting branches are the main type. According to surveys, short fruiting branches account for 47.74%, medium fruiting branches 16.81%, and long fruiting branches 35.45%. The ability of spur branches to bear fruit continuously is weak; short fruiting branches are long-lived and generally persist for 5-6 years. Each cluster has 1-2 fruits; yield is moderate, with a 10-year-old tree producing about 50 kg. Pre-harvest fruit drop is slight, and alternate bearing is not obvious. In Xingcheng, Liaoning, flower buds break in mid-April, first bloom occurs in early May, full bloom and end of bloom in mid-May, fruit is harvested in mid-July, and leaves fall in mid-November. Fruit development period is 68 days, and vegetative growth period is 214 days.

Pollination varieties: Bartlett pear, Clapp's Favorite pear, Comice, Anjou.

It has strong adaptability and is not demanding about natural conditions; it performs well in Zhengzhou, Henan, the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi, and even the Linxia area of Gansu, and can adapt to different soils. It has strong cold resistance and can withstand a low temperature of -28.5°C in the Hexi area of Gansu. It has relatively strong drought and disease resistance, is salt-alkali tolerant, has a certain resistance to pear canker, and suffers less damage from fruit borers. The fruit ripens extremely early, is high quality, and attractive in appearance; it can be developed in appropriate amounts in coastal areas, the northwest, and the suburbs and industrial-mining areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to supply and regulate the market.