Hanfu
A cold-hardy cross of Dongguang and Fuji from Shenyang, grown on about 26,700 hectares around that city by 2016
History
Hanfu (寒富) was bred at Shenyang Agricultural University in Liaoning, where the work began in 19782. Its seed parent was Dongguang, a very cold-hardy apple with poor fruit, and its pollen parent Fuji, which has good fruit but little cold-hardiness1. It was approved and named in Liaoning in 19971,2. Wang and colleagues count it among the more influential varieties to come from the planned cross-breeding that China began in the 1950s3.
Shenyang began planting it widely in 2003, after it had come through several winters of periodic freezing damage there2. By 2016 the city grew it on about 26,700 hectares (400,000 mu), more than half of them in Kangping County, and a plan adopted in 2015 aimed at about 36,700 hectares2. In 2024 the US Department of Agriculture’s office in Beijing listed Hanfu among the apples grown in China besides Fuji5.
Dong and colleagues name it, with Dongguang and Jinhong, as one of the main seed parents of China’s cold-hardy apples1. By 2019 three varieties had come from it, all recorded in Liaoning: Yuehua (2012) and Yueguan (2014), from crosses with Yueshuai, and Yueyan (2014), from a cross with Sansa1. In 1996 the Liaoning Institute of Pomology crossed it with Yueshuai to raise Liaoping, a late apple finally selected in 20194.
The fruit
Dong and colleagues list Hanfu as a large, red, mid-season apple that keeps well, “large” meaning 200 grams or more1. At Shenyang it is picked in early October, about ten days before Red Fuji1. In the Liaoning Institute of Pomology’s comparison with Liaoping, it ripened in early October, with conical, bright red fruit of 245 grams, a firmness of 8.5 kg/cm², 13.2 per cent soluble solids and 0.32 per cent acid4. Fruit from Kangping County is known, the Farmers’ Daily reported, for its thin skin, its sweet, crisp flesh and its bright colour2.
Growing
Dong and colleagues describe Hanfu as cold-hardy and productive, with good fruit and a marked spur-type habit1.
Family tree
Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, as the entries in the atlas record them.
- Hanfu China, bred from 1978
- Seed parent Dongguang
- Pollen parent Fuji Japan, 1939
- Seed parent Ralls Janet United States, about 1800
- Pollen parent Delicious United States, 1872
- Parent Winesap United States, by 1817
Sources
- Pedigree analysis and breeding inspiration of apple cultivars in China (in Chinese), Zhidan Dong, Shangwei Song and others, Scientia Agricultura Sinica 53(21):4485–4496, 2020. Supports: appendix table S1 of the 273 apple cultivars bred in China in 1951–2019: Hanfu (寒富), approved in Liaoning in 1997, bred by Shenyang Agricultural University from Dongguang × Fuji, red skin, large fruit (200 g or more in the paper's classes), mid-season, cold-hardy and a good keeper; Yuehua (2012) and Yueguan (2014) from Hanfu × Yueshuai and Yueyan (2014) from Hanfu × Sansa, all recorded in Liaoning; in the text, Hanfu bred from the very cold-hardy Dongguang, of poor fruit quality, as mother and the cold-tender Fuji, of good fruit quality, as father, giving a cold-hardy, productive apple of good quality with a marked spur-type habit; harvest at Shenyang in early October, about 10 days before Red Fuji; Hanfu, with Dongguang and Jinhong, a main mother of China's cold-hardy varieties, with 3 first-generation offspring.
- Hanfu apples enrich farm families: Shenyang, Liaoning, restructures its farming to develop the Hanfu apple (in Chinese), Yu Xianfeng, Feng Jianwei and Zhang Renjun, Farmers' Daily, p. 3; reprinted by the College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, 2016-11-10. Supports: Hanfu bred by Shenyang Agricultural University from 1978 and approved and named in 1997, a cold-hardy, productive variety; extended widely across Shenyang from 2003, after being tested by several winters of periodic freezing damage there; Shenyang's Hanfu area "40万亩" (400,000 mu, about 26,700 ha); a three-year plan adopted in 2015 for a total of 550,000 mu; Kangping County with more than half of Shenyang's Hanfu area, its fruit known for thin skin, sweet crispness and bright colour.
- Fruit scientific research in New China in the past 70 years: apple (in Chinese), Jinzheng Wang, Zhenhai Han and others, Journal of Fruit Science 36(10):1255–1263, 2019. Supports: planned cross-breeding in China under way from the 1950s; Hanfu, bred by Shenyang Agricultural University, named among the more influential new varieties it produced.
- Breeding report of new late-ripening apple cultivar Liaoping (in Chinese), Dongmei Wang, Zhi Liu and others, Liaoning Institute of Pomology, Journal of Fruit Science 39(4):685–688, 2022. Supports: Liaoping raised by the Liaoning Institute of Pomology from a cross of the cold-hardy, large-fruited Hanfu with Yueshuai made in 1996, and finally selected in 2019; Table 1, Hanfu as a control: ripe in early October, conical, bright red, 245 g, firmness 8.5 kg/cm², 13.2 per cent soluble solids, 0.32 per cent total acid.
- Fresh Deciduous Fruit Annual: China (CH2024-0139), USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Beijing, 2024-11-06. Supports: "Although Fuji is the most plentiful apple produced in China, other varieties include Golden, Hanfu, Huaniu, Guoguang, Jiguan, Qinguan, and Red Delicious".