Breeding and Cultivating a High-yield, High-protein Peanut Variety, Fuhua 9

To meet the increasing market demand on salted crisp peanut snack products popular in western Fujian and southern Jiangxi, a high-yield, high-protein, medium-size peanut cultivar, Fuhua 9, was developed. The new variety was certified by Jiangxi Provincial Crop Variety Identification in 2016 with the code name of Jiangxi 2016002. It was the result of the sexual hybridization by crossing Yueyou 99 as the female parent and the intermediate breeding material, 9817-36-2, as male parent. The growth period for the new variety was 123 days. The plant height was approximately 55.1 cm in an erect and moderate stature. On average, there were 4.65 fruiting branches on each plant with stout, green stems and continually blooming yellow flowers. The leaves were ovoid in shape, medium in size, dark green in color, thick and waxy in appearance. With pale yellowish shell, the pod shaped like cocoon with a narrow waist and medium reticulate.The 100-pod weight was 178 g, and the pod count per kg, 618. The elliptic seeds were full and covered by pink and smooth, wrinkleless skin. The 100-kernel weight was 66.2 g; the kernel rate, 64.4%; the oil content, 51.41%; the protein content, 30.86%; and, the O/L ratio, 1.22. Fuhua 9 exhibited excellent comprehensive properties, such as strong lodging resistance, moderate drought resistance, and resistances to rust and leaf spot. The average pod yield of the plants was 359.5 kg per 666.7 m², which was 6.58% higher than that of the reference variety, Shanyou 523. The average kernel yield of the plants was 230.7 kg per 667 m², which was 0.86% lower than that of the reference. This newly developed variety was considered suitable for processing the popular snacks. For differentiating Fuhua 9 from its parent lines at the molecular level, four pairs of SSR primers could be applied.