Introduction to the New Century Apricot Variety and Key Points of Cultivation Techniques

The New Century apricot is an American variety introduced in 1999 from the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute. Through trial plantings and observations at multiple sites in Guizhou Province, it has been confirmed that this variety has strong adaptability, early fruiting, high yield, large fruit size, rich sweet flavor, and excellent quality. The fruit ripens in mid-May, 13 days earlier than the Katy apricot and one month earlier than the Manao apricot. The fruit can be sold out before the wheat harvest, so it does not interfere with the busy farming season. It is expected to replace old varieties such as Luotuo Huang and Hong Hebao and become the leading early-maturing apricot variety in Guizhou.

I. Variety Characteristics

1. Morphological characteristics. Young trees are vigorous and naturally spreading. With open-center training and pruning, a two-year-old tree reaches 260 cm in height with a canopy spread of 2.6 m x 2.0 m. New leaves and new shoots are light reddish-brown, perennial branches are grayish-brown, and the leaves are dark green with smooth surfaces.

2. Adaptability and phenological periods. This variety has strong adaptability and has shown good growth and fruiting under different site conditions in Guiyang, Changshun, Huishui, Xishui, Chishui, Xingyi, Bijie, Zunyi and other areas. In the Guiyang area, the bud-break stage is in early March, the flower bud swelling stage is in mid-March, and the full bloom stage is in early April. The flowering period lasts 5-7 days, and the fruit ripens in mid-May, with a growth period of 43-51 days. Leaf fall occurs in early November, and the annual growth period is about 230 days.

3. Growth and fruiting habits. Young trees grow vigorously. With open-center training and pruning combined with 3-4 pinching treatments, a stable high-yielding tree structure can be formed in the same year. After entering heavy fruiting, the tree vigor moderates and growth becomes stable, with fruiting mainly on medium and short fruit branches. It flowers easily and is resistant to late frost, with strong self-fruitfulness. When planted in the open field, it can trial-flower and trial-fruit in the second year. The average single fruit weight is 68 g, with 40-60 fruits per tree. In the third year, the yield is 500 kg per mu, and in the fourth year, 2500 kg per mu. It has the characteristics of early fruiting, high yield, and stable yield.

4. Economic characteristics of the fruit. The apricot fruit is nearly round, with a prominent suture. The fruit is large, with an average single fruit weight of 52-73 g and a maximum fruit weight of 91 g. It is freestone, with an edible rate of 90%. The color is bright, with a pink blush on the surface, an orange-yellow ground color, and a red blush on the sunny side. The flesh is orange-yellow, melting, fine-textured, and very juicy. The soluble solids content is 15%, sugar content 13%, and acid content 2.1%. It is moderately sweet and sour, with a rich aroma and excellent quality.

II. Key Points of Cultivation

For open-field cultivation, the plant spacing is 2-3 m x 4-5 m. To achieve early and high yields, planned dense planting may be adopted, with a spacing of 2 x 3 m and 111 seedlings per mu. If protected cultivation is used, the density can be increased further.

Planting orchard-specific grasses such as ryegrass, alfalfa, and red and white clover in the orchard helps conserve water and fertilizer, suppress weeds, reduce pests and diseases, and at the same time provide forage (especially important in areas lacking water sources).

This variety has a large growth volume. In summer pruning, pay attention to timely pinching and remove parallel branches, crossing branches, drooping branches, and watersprouts that disrupt the tree form, so as to ensure ventilation and light penetration in the inner canopy and improve the coloring rate on the sunny side of the fruit.

In winter pruning, first select and retain strong branches in suitable positions as main branches, and match fruiting branches with vegetative branches in proportion to promote early formation of the canopy. For young trees, light pruning and retaining more branches are advisable, with attention to opening the branch angles and mainly long-shoot pruning. After heavy fruiting, pruning should gradually shift to conventional pruning, with heavy pruning and renewal to keep tree vigor moderate and prevent adjacent trees from overlapping and shading each other, so as to avoid outward shifting of fruiting sites and premature aging of the tree.

The New Century fruit has a short growth period. To increase fruit size, in addition to strengthening fertilizer and water management and controlling branch number through winter pruning, strict fruit thinning should be carried out 2-3 weeks after petal fall to ensure high and stable yields and improve fruit marketability.

Pay attention to integrated control of pests and diseases such as apricot scab, apricot star caterpillar, and apricot scale.