Low Chill Breeding Program

Sun World is the only stone fruit breeder in California operating a separate breed program within a low chill region. We focus on development of peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots specifically for low chill regions throughout the world. 'Low chill' refers to the 'chilling requirement', or the number of hours of winter temperatures between 32 and 450F (0-7.20C) required for trees to come out of dormancy and produce fruit. Low chill cultivars require relatively little winter chilling to produce fruit, so they can be grown in non-traditional fruit growing regions where winters are relatively short and mild.

For decades growers have been  intrigued by the idea of growing stone fruit in low chill regions where fruit can be harvested as much as a month before traditional fruit growing regions, but until recently they have been limited to cultivars with marginal commercial quality.  We have turned the corner on low chill cultivar development and the production and quality of today's low chill cultivars rival those grown in traditional regions.

Supechfifteen

In 2001 Sun World patented three new low chill peaches.  Supechfifteen is a breakthrough in low chill variety development because of its productivity, size and flavor for the ultra-early season.  It is an outstanding variety for low chill regions:

• Supechfifteen harvest in a low-chill region can be competed before the earliest harvest begins in traditional-chilling regions. In the Coachella Valley of California, Supechfifteen harvest is completed in the first half of April, while peach production in the southern San Joaquin doesn't begin until after mid-April.

• With a chilling requirement of only 150 C.H. the variety is very consistent in low chill regions.

• Size is naturally very large (66mm+) so that girdling to obtain commercial size is often unnecessary.