The Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, announces the release of Scarletprince peach. Scarletprince, previously tested as BY87P994, is being released to provide an attractive, very firm peach ripening with Redglobe, that is well-adapted to the Southeastern climate. It has performed well in South Carolina and Georgia and is suggested for trial wherever Redglobe is grown. Scarletprince resulted from open pollinated seed of Blazeprince. Blazeprince was an open pollinated seedling of BY81P2840, which was an open pollinated seedling of O'Henry. The original seedling tree of BY87P994 was planted at the Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Lab at Byron, GA in 1987 and selected by W.R. Okie when it first fruited in 1989. Scarletprince ripens in late June or early July at Byron, about with Redglobe. The fruit is large, 7 centimeters (2.75 inch) in diameter when adequately thinned, and usually very round. Fruit is firmer than Redglobe, and softens slowly on the tree. At maturity, the surface is 90 percent bright red with an attractive yellow ground color and little pubescence. The flesh is yellow with some red in the flesh if allowed to mature on the tree. The freestone fruit is firm with excellent melting texture and very good flavor. Trees of Scarletprince are vigorous and productive. Leaf glands are reniform. Trees appear to be moderately resistant to bacterial spot disease, much more so than Blazeprince, but are not highly resistant. Blossoms have large, showy pink petals and are self-fertile. Trees bloom with Redglobe, requiring about 850 hours of chilling below 7 °C (45 F) to break the bud rest period in climates similar to that of Byron. No virus symptoms have been observed on Scarletprince trees at Byron.
Key
Evaluations are based on a 1-8 scale (6=OK,7=Commercially acceptable, 8=Excellent)
Size is in inches
Shape: round is assumed, T=tip, P=point, S=suture, OB=oblate, OV=ovate
Pubescence: 10=nectarine
Blush: presented as percentage of ground color cover with red or similar
Freeness: 3=early cling, 8=completely free
Status: 0=discard, 1=keep
Notes: SOS=soft on suture, SOT=soft on tip, RIF=red in flesh, GAS=green around stem
RAP=red around pit, GGC=green ground color, sz=size, wh=white, yt=young tree, CCT=concave tip
Bloom date is when approx. 90% of blooms are open (full bloom)
The description of each variety of peach or nectarine fruit under each group is in different formats as this information is collected from varied sources and hence is not consistent