A new introduction from the Italian MAS.PES peach breeding program: ‘MAISSA’, a stony hard flat peach

MAS.PES is an apricot and peach breeding program located in northern Italy aimed at the introduction of cultivars featuring enhanced fruit quality and disease resistance (http://www.maspes.org). Among the most promising commercial outcomes, ‘Maissa’, early selected as ‘BO06013020’, is to be mentioned. It is a flat, yellow peach from a [Sweet Cap x BO 96028059 (Spring Red x Big Top)] cross, ripening in late August/first week of September in northern Italy (southern Po Valley, 44°50’ latitude), around 50 days after ‘Big Top’ nectarine, a commercial cultivar of reference for the Italian peach industry. The tree growth habit is regular, of medium-high vigour, chilling is medium, yield is high; fruit shape is flat, rather regular, with over 70% blush, over 220g in weight; flesh texture is stony hard (Hd trait), while parents and grandparents were all classified as belonging to the slow softening texture type (a possible mutation at the F locus); it is of the ‘low acid’ type (D trait), with soluble solids over 17 °Brix when harvested at full maturity; it has a delicious flavour, rather unusual for a stony hard peach. Harvest could be adjusted according to commercial purposes, since flesh never melts, thus can be started when the fruit reaches 13 °Brix. ‘Maissa’ needs a careful field management in order to avoid brown rot damages on fruit.