Agronomical performance, physiological response and fruit quality of commercial flat peach cultivars grown in the Ebro Valley (Spain)

In Spain, flat peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch. var. Platycarpa L.H. Bailey) production started to be relevant 10 years ago, accounting today for 20% of the total production. Worldwide breeding programs have done significant improvements in internal and external characteristics, such as fruit shape, fruit size, skin color, taste, flavor, among others. However, such improvements need to be tested under different pedoclimatic conditions from those where they were bred to verify their adaptability. Fruit production needs nowadays to meet the customer’s needs in terms of taste and nutritional characteristics. Thus, this studyevaluated14new commercial flat peaches in terms of agronomical performance, physiological response, morphological appearance, fruit quality attributes, and nutritional content. The experimental orchard is located at IRTA-Lleida (Spain), under a cold semiarid Mediterranean climate. These cultivars covered a range of maturity from June to September. Fruits were freeze-dried and analyzed for polyphenol and flavonoid content. There were significantly differences among cultivars on all traits evaluated. With regards to physiological response, each cultivar responded differently depending on the time of the evaluation (after manual thinning and 5-7 days before harvest). At this last period of evaluation, the response of each cultivar was also influenced by the climatic conditions. Despite differences in flesh firmness, all the cultivars showed a good °Brix and acidity content that placed them in the sweet and sub-acid categories, except for ‘Flatchief’ with low sugar content. Finally, ‘Mistral-30’, ‘Caramba’, ‘Flatstar’ and ‘Flatdiva’ cultivars are characterized by high nutritional properties.