Introduction to the Characteristics of the Large-Fruited Sweet Carambola No. 2 Variety

Registration number: Gui Shen Guo 2007003

Variety name: Large-Fruited Sweet Carambola No. 2

Breeding unit: Horticulture Research Institute, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Variety source: Selected from seedlings grown from seeds of Singapore sweet carambola.

Characteristics: Branches are spreading, twigs numerous and dense, soft and drooping. Leaves are odd-pinnately compound, 10-21 cm long, 10-16 cm wide, alternate; number of leaflets 7-15, mostly 11, alternate or opposite; leaflet blades are asymmetrical, with one side of the base broad and bluntly rounded, and the other side of the base narrow and oblique; one-year-old branches have red-brown bark and relatively prominent lenticels. Flowers are racemes, axillary, 2-3 cm long, with each inflorescence bearing from slightly more than ten to several dozen flowers. Flowers are small, about 8 mm long, about 4 mm in corolla diameter, bell-shaped, with 5 petals, purplish red and fragrant; stamens 10, the outer whorl of 5 short and underdeveloped, lacking anthers, and only the inner whorl of 5 bearing pollen; pistil 1, ovary superior, with 5 locules, each locule containing 1-3 seeds. The fruit is a fleshy berry, short spindle-shaped, with a thick and relatively long stalk, easy to bag, relatively high shoulders, a pronounced depression in the center of the shoulder, and an incurved tip, generally with 5 ribs, and a five-pointed star shape in cross-section; the rind is thin and smooth; unripe fruit is greenish green, with white spots visible along the ribs, and when ripe the fruit is yellow and the white spots along the ribs gradually disappear. The average single fruit weight is 213 g, the soluble solids content of the flesh is 8.0%-12.5%, and the total organic acid content is 0.2%-0.45%.

When grown in southern Guangxi, there are 3-4 flowering and fruiting periods each year: flowering from mid-to-late May to early June, with fruit ripening from mid-to-late August to early September; flowering from mid-to-late July to mid-August, with fruit beginning to ripen from mid-October to early November; flowering from late October to mid-November, with harvest from mid-January to late February of the following year.

Yield performance: Planted in the same year, it flowers and sets fruit in the same year; it can enter formal production in the second year, with a single-plant yield of up to 20 kg; in the third year the single-plant yield reaches 30 kg; in the fourth year it can enter the full-production period, with a single-plant yield of more than 45 kg.

Key points of cultivation techniques: Refer to Large-Fruited Sweet Carambola No. 1

Approval opinion: Upon review, this variety has considerable application value in production and has passed approval; it can be planted according to local conditions in southern Guangxi and southeastern Guangxi.