Cultivation Performance of Blood Orange No.8 in

Wanzhou District, Chongqing City

Quan Chen

1,2

, Jinhui He

, Wenjing Zhang

1,2

and Songling Xu

1,2

Chongqing Three Gorges Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wanzhou 400401, Chongqing, China

College of Biology and Food Engineering, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Wanzhou 404020, Chongqing, China

Plant Protection and Fruit Tree Technology Popularization Station in Wanzhou District of Chongqing,

Wanzhou 404155, Chongqing, China

Keywords: Cultivation Performance, Blood Orange No.8, Wanzhou, Chongqing.

Abstract: To evaluate cultivation performance of blood orange No.8 in Chongqing Wanzhou, we separately brought in

the scions of this variety to 5-year-old ‘Tarocco’ blood orange new line which was on ‘Carrizo’ citrange

[Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.]×Citrus sinensis Osbeck] rootstock. 3 orchards were chose to grow the scions in

Ganning town of Wanzhou, Chongqing in 2017. Through 5 years’ follow-up survey, the results showed that

blood orange No.8 was suitable for local climate, which got high survival rate, was easy to flower and had

high fruition rate. The average fruit weight was 197.1g, TSS was 11.9%, TA was 0.7%, Vc was 42.0

mg/100ml, anthocyanin was 33.6mg/L, general flavone was 831.7mg/kg, and juice content was 58.8% on

average. The average yield of the three orchards in 2019 was 17.6kg every tree, and 31.3kg every tree in 2020,

41.3 kg every tree in 2021. Therefore, Blood orange No.8 is very suitable for development in Wanzhou,

Chongqing and can be used as an reserve variety.

1 INTRODUCTION

‘Tarocco’ blood orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck)

is the advantageous and characteristic citrus industry

in Three Gorges Reservoir Region which was planted

33000 hm

. Tarrocco blood orange has a long

maturity period, and they are normally harvested

from January to March. Blood orange No.8 (Citrus

sinensis (L.) Osbeck.vat.Tarocco) was discovered

from the progeny of ‘Tarocco’ blood orange by

Institute of Horticulture, Sichuan Academy of

Agricultural Sciences and Sichuan Horticultural Crop

Technology Extension Station. It was selected, bred

and approved after many years of experiments. This

variety had a strong, rosy pericarp and rosy scented

flesh. To find new variety for sustainable

development of ‘Tarocco’ blood orange industry in

Wanzhou, Chongqing, blood orange No.8 was

introduced and grafted onto ‘Tarocco’ blood orange

new line for trial in 2017.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Experimental Location and Plant

Material

The field experiments were conducted for ‘Tarocco’

blood orange on ‘Carrizo’ citrange [Poncirus

trifoliata (L.) Raf.] × [Citrus sinensis Osbeck]

rootstock during 2017-2021 in three orchards. They

were in Yongsheng Village (108°15 '35.98 "E, 30°40'

22.65" N), Heima Village (108°16 '6.75 "E, 30°39'

39.37" N) and Ganning Village Ganning Town

(108°14 '41.66 "E, 30°40' 31.6" N), Wanzhou

District, Chongqing City which were at the altitude of

395m, 320m and 280m. ‘Tarocco’ blood orange is for

5-year-old. The planting density was 3m×5m.

2.2 Treatments

1 tree was a replicate. There were 30 replicates in

each treatment, and 30 trees in each orchard. A total

of 90 trees were tested. All experiments were

performed in triplicate.

Chen, Q., He, J., Zhang, W. and Xu, S.

Cultivation Performance of Blood Orange No.8 in Wanzhou District, Chongqing City.

DOI: 10.5220/0012003900003625

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Food Science and Biotechnology (FSB 2022), pages 149-152

ISBN: 978-989-758-638-5

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

149

2.3 Collection of Samples and Data

Determination

In ripening-season, a total of 5 fruits were randomly

collected from each tree and mixed into one sample.

A total of 90 samples were harvested. Electronic

vernier calipers were used to determine fruit vertical

diameter, horizontal diameter and pericarp thickness.

Fruit weight was determined using an electronic

balance. Total soluble solid (TSS) was determined by

PAL-1 digital glucostat (ATAGO, Japan) after juice

extraction. The total acid (TA) was determined by

NaOH neutralization titration method (Li, 2010) and

calculated solid acid ratio (TSS/TA). Vitamin C (Vc)

were respectively determined by 2, 6-dichlorophenol

sodium titration method (Chen, 2014). All

experiments were performed in triplicate. The pH

differential method (Honda, 2014; Yu, 2019) was

used to determine the content of total anthocyanins in

fruit. The method of Ji Lu et al. (Ji, 2016) and Zhang

Dongfeng et al. (Zhang, 2019) were used for

determination of total flavonoids content. Juice

content was computed as formula (1). Edible rate was

computed as formula (2).

Juice content (%) = juice weight/fruit weight ×100

(1)

Edible rate (%) pulp weight/fruit weight ×100 (2)

2.4 Statistical Analysis

The database was analyzed by IBM SPSS 16.0 (New

York) and Microsoft Excel using one-way analysis of

variance (ANOVA), and Tukey’s HSD post hoc test

for means separation. The data are means of 30

replicates in twice.

3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION

3.1 Main Biological Characteristics of

Blood Orange No.8

It was introduced to three villages in Ganning Town,

Wanzhou District, Chongqing City, and showed some

obvious characteristics after investigation. The

variety showed middle growth, and the crown is

round. The height of the tree was around 2.2 m, and

the width is 2.5 m×2.7 m. There was strong

germination in spring and summer. There were many

upper branches and dark-green and thicker leaves. In

spring, the strong flower-forming ability and large

amounts of flower could be found. And the

production increased significantly compared wtih

‘Tarocco’ blood orange.

3.2 Phenological Periods

Characteristics of Blood Orange

No.8

In Wanzhou District, Chongqing City, the spring

shoots generally germinated in late February to early

March, and were the largest than other type of shoots

in all year, which is also the most important parent

branches. The buds appeared in late March, flowering

come in early April, and full flowering was in mid-to-

late April. The first physiological drop occurred in

mid-May and the second was in the mid-June. After

this period in mid-June, summer shoots began to be

extracted, and in early August, autumn twigs began to

be extracted. After spring shoots, the amount of

autumn twigs is second-biggest which were important

parent branches, and in mid-October, winter shoots

began to be extracted.

Figure 1: Fruit of blood orange No.8.

(Left is comparison of fruit ripening between

‘Tarocco’ blood orange new line(upper) and blood

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150

orange No.8 (lower)on December 19th, 2021; Middle

is the colour of peel and flesh of blood orange No.8

in June 3rd, 2020; Right is fruit appearance contrast

between ‘Tarocco’ blood orange new line(left) and

Blood orange No.8 (right)on December 19th, 2021)

After the fruit expansion stage from June to

September, the peel began to turn yellow in late

November (the first turning), orange-yellow in late

December (Fig 1left), orange in late January, orange-

red in early February (the second turning) in the next

year. And the flesh begins get rosy from January to

February. It come to maturity from mid-April to early

May, and can be kept fresh until the end of May. It

had 1-2 months later than ‘Tarocco’ blood orange

new line (Fig 1 middle and right). And the whole

growth and development period range from 280d to

300d.

3.3 Fruit Trait of Blood Orange No.8

The fruit weight was about 180g-210g, with an

average of 197.1g with the traits of short oval (Fig 1),

and fruit shape index was 1.07. The pericarp was

smooth and thin which about 3.2mm on average

(Table 1). The blood orange No.8 had excellent

quality of fruit which was with TSS 11.9%, TA 0.7%,

Vc 42mg/100ml, anthocyanin 33.6mg/L, general

flavone 831.7mg/kg, juice rate 58.8% on average

(Table 2). The fruit was seedless, and had moderate

acidity and higher sweetness, and showed more

smoothness and plumpness. The juice content was

58.8% and the edible rate was got to 73.6% on

average. It had a strong rose aroma in flesh. The fruit

are picked in early April and stored at room

temperature until the end of May which was still with

good mouthfeel. So, bood orange No.8 was very

durable for storage and transportation.

3.4 Production Performance of Blood

Orange No.8

Blood orange No. 8 can fruit in the second year after

top grafting, and officially put into production in the

fourth year. The average yield of the three orchards in

2019 was 17.6kg every tree, and 31.3kg every tree in

2020, 41.3 kg every tree in 2021(Table 3, Fig 1 right).

In addition, there was no need to do anything to

promote the flowers. These showed that Blood orange

No. 8 had higher and more stable yield.

Table 3: Yield of blood orange No. 8.

Orchard

Average yield of one tree(kg)

2019 2020 2021

Ganning 15.1±1.1 31.2±3.1 40.7±4.1

Yon

shen

20.2±1.9 34.3±3.2 41.2±4.2

Heima 17.4±1.4 28.5±2.9 41.9±4.5

Avera

e 17.6±1.7 31.3±3.4 41.3±4.8

4 CONCLUSIONS

Blood orange No.8 was from the C. Sinensis

‘Tarocco’ blood orange, and showed well affinity

after grafting. In Wanzhou, Chongqing, C. Sinensis

‘Tarocco’ blood orange had been planted in there for

17 years and 33000 hm

. Some of the trees were aged,

the variety construction was single, and the maturity

was mainly focus on February to April. If we wanted

to get larger citrus market and accelerated sustainable

Table 1: Physical properties of bood orange No.8 fruit.

Orchard

Fruit

weight (g)

Vertical

Diameter (cm)

Horizontal

Diameter (cm)

Fruit shape

index

Pericarp

thickness (mm)

Ganning 181.4±11.5 79.1±8.1 72.7±8.2 1.09±0.1 3.5±0.2

Yon

shen

210.2±18.7 81.4±7.1 76.3±7.4 1.07±0.1 3.2±0.4

Heima 199.8±20.8 79.5±10.2 75.6±6.8 1.05±0.2 2.9±0.2

Avera

e 197.1±18.2 80.0±7.9 74.9±7.1 1.07±0.1 3.2±0.3

Note: Data are mean of three replicates. The same below.

Table 2: Quality of bood orange No.8 fruit.

Orchard

TSS

(%)

TSS/

(mg/100ml)

Anthocyanin

(mg/L)

General flavone

(mg/kg)

Juice content

(%)

Ganning 11.9±0.1 0.64±0.0 18.59±1.1 39.7±3.1 33.5±3.0 825.6±79.8 57.8±5.1

Yongsheng 11.8±2.2 0.68±0.1 17.35±1.2 42.5±3.9 37.8±3.1 848.7±88.3 57.4±5.1

Heima 12.1±1.0 0.71±0.1 17.04±1.9 43.8±4.8 29.5±2.6 820.8±91.5 61.2±6.8

Average 11.9±1.1 0.7±0.0 17.7±1.8 42.0±4.2 33.6±3.4 831.7±84.7 58.8±5.4

Cultivation Performance of Blood Orange No.8 in Wanzhou District, Chongqing City

151

development, we must prolong the ripening period

and introduce to foster more improved varieties.

Therefore, after several years of introduction

experiments, it was found that blood orange No.8

grafted on the ‘Tarocco’ blood orange new line had

higher survival rate, stronger growth and higher yield.

And the three major indexes fruit quality, TSS and

edible rate all inherited advantages of the ‘Tarocco’

blood orange new line, coupled with the unique

climatic conditions in wanzhou which was in the

center of Three Gorges Reservoir Region, ensuring

that can form rich anthocyanins and late-mature.

These can effectively prolong the time in market,

balance variety structure, and alleviate the pressure

for sale. So, blood orange No.8 was very suitable for

planting on the altitude below 400m in Wanzhou,

Chongqing and can be used as an new variety to plant.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was funded by Science and Technology

Research Program of Chongqing Municipal

Education Commission (Grant No. KJ20210

1254125241), Chongqing Wanzhou Science and

Technology Program (wzstc-20210211) and the first

batch of state major hydraulic engineering

construction funds (Three Gorges follow-up work) in

2022 (No. 5001012022FA00001).

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