Evaluation of Three Peach Cultivars (Prunus persica L.) Grown in Egypt under North Delta Conditions

This investigation was carried out during 2007 and 2008 seasons on eight years old peach trees grown in a commercial orchard located at Sedy Salem District, Kafrelsheikh governorate, Egypt. to evaluate and compare vegetative growth, flowering bud fertility, maturity, yield and fruit quality of three peach cultivars namely, Florida Prince, Early Grand and Desert Red under North Delta condition. The evaluation of the three peach cultivars exhibited that “Desert Red” cultivar produced highest yield, but its fruit reach maturity later in the third week of May. However, “Early Grand” cultivar obtained least number of fruits per tree with intermediate yield (kg) per tree and highest fruit quality particularly fruit weight, size TSS and anthocyanin content, but its fruit maturity occurred at early May. Furthermore, “Florida Prince” cultivar started vegetative and flower buds very early, and produced highest significant number of flower buds, most of them born on the basal part of the shoot and recorded the longest shoot and internode. It recorded the highest fertility index. Therefore, produced highest number of fruits per tree with low quality. In addition, this cultivar reached full bloom early on the end of January and fruit maturity occurred by early of April and thus is considered early harvest cultivar.