Saturn Doughnut Peaches

Saturn Doughnut peaches are starting to get ripe (along with Redhavens). As many have mentioned before, they are almost too sweet. Peeled (I always peel and slice my peaches) and ate my first one and almost wanted to spit it out it was so sweet. I have eaten the rest with skin on which helps balance out the flavor quite a bit. Brix is 22.

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Beautiful clean good size peaches and super sweet !

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I wish I had that problem :blush:… By the way, where is your tree from? I don’t have this variety, but several orchards here in the North East have it and the fruit size is close to half the size you are showing, not sure whether it is due to lack of fruit thinning or different sport of Saturn.

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We are growing Flat wonderful and this is the first year that we got a taste of them. I wasn’t at all impressed. I hope they taste better next year, if we get any. It seems like the frosts are getting later and later and I never know if they will zap most of the peaches or not.

My Saturns are from scion wood I got from @Olpea that I put on a tree from a big box store that was supposed to be a Redhaven, I am pretty sure it is an Early Redhaven. Saturns can be pretty small, but I think I thinned them about right this year.

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I planted my first doughnut peach after tasting Saturns at a local u-pick place. I did my research and found “Sweet Cap” which is considerably larger than Saturn. That peach was a real winner in every single category - except taste. It was no where near as good as Saturn. It had that “green” flavor to it. I pulled out the Sweet Cap tree after several years and put some Saturn grafts on another tree. I am much happier with Saturn.

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I tried donut peach trees this year in July at the local supermarket. At first I had ordered a few of Necta Zee nectarines and was planning on getting honey babe. I immediately canceled my order for the Necta Zee at Raintree and ordered 2 Stark Saturn from Stark Bros and 1 Saturn from Raintree since it was along my other trees at Raintree. I also got 3 dwarf Gold Saturn from Stark Bros. The Gold Saturn has been the only peach tree I have found that is a yellow donut peach and hardy to zone 5. Stark Bros advertises them as the same melting and sugary flavor as the Stark Saturn Donut Peach only a yellow variant.

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Just a follow up.Did your yellow Stark Saturn Donut peach fruited yet? How was the taste? Flavor, texture, sweetness, etc. also tree’ disease resistances, growth habits, hardiness, etc

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My gold Saturn got massively eaten by animals to the ground. I was new to gardening back then and did not know to protect the trees. My white donut peaches from Stark Bros are still living but no fruit yet. The first year had a few flowers but they fruited in March so no fruit set. The second year no flowers. This year they went into full bloom in April. I noticed pollen shed because I was hand pollinating this year with a brush. Past years I did not hand pollinate so I am hoping hand pollination of fruit trees helps this year.

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sorry to hear your loss. Stark doesnt often
carry Start Saturn yellow peach. I just ordered a white Stark Saturn and hope it is bud hardy enough to fruit here.

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I have heard a lot of Saturn peaches only require like 150 chill hours. It has been the early bud break that has affected me the most. That is a massive problem in CO in general though. Lots of apricot, peaches etc. bloom too early here and get their buds zapped. In my experience it is inconsistent on what Stark Bros carries. For 2 years I waited for a sure crop and now they seem to have it all the time.

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