Research on the Fruit Quality of Newhall Navel Orange of Hubei Province

The fruit quality of Newhall navel orange from 13 production counties/cities of Hubei Province was tested.The result showed the significant difference in fruit quality of various locations.By means of systematic cluster analysis,it was revealed that the ordinary fruit quality of Zigui,Xingshan and Badong county was clustered into Group I,that of Changyang,Yunxian,Gong’an,Zhijiang and Yidu City/County was clustered into Group II while that of Danjiangkou,Yangxin,Tongcheng,Tianmen and Jingshan City/County into Group III;and the peel colorlab values of Changyang,Yunxian,Xingshan and Yidu County/City was clustered into Group I,that of Badong,Jingshan,Zhijiang,Danjiangkou,Yangxin,Gong’an and Zigui into Group II,while that of Tianmen City and Tongcheng County into Group III.By way of integrated analysis on the ordinary quality and peel colorlab values,it could be concluded that the Three-Gorge Reservoir Area including Xingshan,Zigui and Badong County would be the best,then the region including Changyang,Yidu,Zhijiang neighboruing to the Three-Gorge Reservoir Area,Yunxian of(Danjiang-)Reservoir Area and Gong’an of Juanqiao-Reservoir Area but the rest region would be general.Therefore,in Hubei Province Newhall navel orange should be prior developed in the(superior) region of the Three-Gorge Reservoir Area,then radiated to the suitable area of neighboring region and other suitable region with best mini-climate,but in other regions it would be possible to select the proper miniclimate areas to develop Newhall navel orange.