I had a lot of amazing white peaches on a recent trip to Japan. They were very juicy, sweet, and had a more floral taste than the yellow-fleshed Ontario peaches I’m used to. I’m inspired to plant a white peach tree in my backyard (located in the Toronto area, zone 5-6).
I have seen the following varieties of white peach trees for sale in Canada:
Raritan Rose
White Lady
Saturn
Galaxy
Which of these would be the most similar to Japanese white peaches in terms of flavour? (Or if you can share other varieties available to purchase in Southern Ontario, or that can ship here, or you have a tree you’re willing to share a graft from, that would be great too!)
The donuts or saucer white peaches are most like Asian peaches as grown here. White Lady and Rariton Rose don’t quite get up the brix as high and Rariton Rose is more a typical but good white peach with some acid- white lady at least is low acid so probably more similar to the ones you tasted in Japan. Can’t remember the name, but Adams sold me another, earlier Saucer peach I tasted for the first time this season- it is something like Oren. It is similar to Saturn. As I recall, Galaxy is in the same category, but according to CHAT GPT, it has more floral flavors than Saturn. I don’t remember that, but it’s been a while since I’ve tasted it. Chat suggests that the white nect, Artic Jay is reputed to have some floral overtones. American breeders didn’t hone in on the floral qualities when developing saucer peaches, apparently, although Asian flat peaches are part of their genetics. I don’t believe that is true of most American bred varieties. .
If you can get your hand on Arctic Star or Emeraude you will get fantastic, flavorful white nectarines. They easily beat any white peach I tried (I have Saturn donut).
Arctic star doesn’t have the unique shuimitao, aka honey peach, aka Hakuto, flavor.
High quality Saturn (top branches, well thinned) has that flavor, spring snow has even a stronger honey peach flavor.
Personally I doubt the shuimitao (a very generic name, not a specific cultivar) and hakuto (hakuto itself just means white peach, a very generic name) in the US are real. Real honey peaches in China and Japan are very big, typically 1lbs each.
I know some real honey peaches (lakeview cultivar ) from China are grown in some Chinese communities in US and Canada.
BTW, I had silver Logan and arctic supreme first time this year. I was not very impressed. Silver Logan had quite some acidic kick and arctic supreme was just average - not comparable to real honey peaches.
I get the same result here. Silver Gem is the superior Nect. for me, but like most American varieties, doesn’t feature floral taste, a feature I’m not even familiar with. I think Scott is the only one I know of with experience with such exotics here. Emraude is from a French program. I was going to say I ate one yesterday, until I found out it was white- I’m pretty sure the one I ate was yellow fleshed but was sold to me as that variety by Adams. It was very low acid and quite late, as is Emraude, so go figure. I cannot trust my physical memory, but I will get back to you on that. No florals, I remember that much. Not high enough brix to be good by my standards, although it was quite sweet. Until it gets above 20 I need some acid.
I used to grow White Lady years ago. One of the pits fell from it and started a seedling, which was good, since the original tree died (it was in a large pot and I’m not great about watering…). The fruit seems pretty similar to the parent (as is often the case for peaches). It is a sweet peach, without much acidity, but still has decent flavor. It is definitely less juicy than some of the yellow peaches.I have sampled recently (Carolina Gold and Early Crawford), so I agree that it might not be a good sub for the OP’s Japanese peach.
There was a long string of sunny days right before harvest and while I under-thinned this tree yet again, it still got very good brix. Parts of it were extremely under-thinned, as I only gave it one pass, unlike the other trees, as it is in a location I missed on my swing through the yard. As I noted in the above pic(edit: looks like I forgot the pic…added), I was really impressed by the small, spotted fruit in the above pic. I think 24 is the highest brix I’ve ever seen in a peach. That’s the kind of reading I sometimes get in Euro plums or the best Nectarines from the store (CA). Some of my pluots came close this year as well- I just had a 22 brix Flavor Punch and a 23 brix Flavor Grenade for breakfast.
I had some AJ from the farmer’s market this year. They were almost 20 brix and very tasty, but fairly small. The grower said that he thinned them pretty well, but they still didn’t size up. The Zephyr he brought a week later were 2X as large and half the brix (12 brix). The AJ had a nice smell, which reminds me of roses.
Wouldn’t Shui Mi Tao be a better match? It translates as “Juicy Honey Peach” :). I grafted it years ago, but I don’t remember if I ever got fruit before the tree it was on died. I do remember getting a very nice 17 brix large white fruit from one of the other Chinese varieties, which I think was Zin Dai Jui Bao.
There were a couple other Asian varieties which were a bit green when ripe. I grew (and liked) one of them, but don’t remember which .Athena and Pallas are the names I found in my records. I should re-graft some of these, now that I spray more fungicides and my peaches are doing better.
It’s not a great peach, the flesh is too stringy and it has other problems as well.
That peach is the most like the standard Chinese white peaches, cling and firmer flesh. It’s uncommon though.
If anyone still has it I’d be interested in wood, my tree recently died and I didn’t catch it soon enough to grab any wood. I sent it to quite a few people over the years.
I got Shui Mi Tao and Zin Dai Jui Bao from Scott, but judging from his last comment that isn’t possible anymore.
Maybe @Stan has some of these. He sent me Pallas and a couple other Chinese names (Feng Bao and Fei Cheng Tao) back in 2018 that he got from ARS.
@Bradybb, do you have any of these? I think you had Athena back in 2017.
One variety which may be more available is China Pearl. Half of it’s genetics come from a Chinese import and it is reputed to be more like Chinese peaches than most modern white varieties.
During my visits to some CRFG exchanges,I may have picked up some mentioned varieties.However,they either were successfully grafted and lasted a short time or didn’t take at all.
I did a trade with Scott a few years ago,that may have included Shui Mi Tao,from me,but the wood could have been bad.
If going again,I’ll try to make an announcement and bring a list of things,forum members want.
Wow, this was my first ever post here and I really appreciate all of these detailed replies!! You guys are serious about peaches!
The discussion about “honey peaches” is very interesting to me—I’ve come across that term and wondered about the distinction/overlap between honey peaches and white peaches. It sounds like that’s likely what I’m looking for.
I’m also open to planting a nectarine tree if there is a good one with that white/floral taste, but my options seem pretty limited in Canada.
From the ones I’ll be able to source, it sounds like Saturn peaches will be the best bet. (Any thoughts on Galaxy vs Saturn?)
Thanks again for all the replies and in-depth discussion!
I think Saturn is much better. Galaxy is larger but its more stringy and less tasty.
Many of the asian white peaches have at least some honey flavor. The ones explicitly with “Honey” in the name have more of it. There really should be more of these available in the US (or Canada).
