I have a Tangos tree which my family likes for the novelty, its a little trickier than our regular peach varieties. I was hoping to find some other types of flat peaches that perform well. Or is Tangos the best?
I grew the Saturn for years. Always sweet, hornets liked it. I eventually got rid of it because it was so small, may go back to it.
I have four types of donut peaches. For the flavor, the Saturn is the best, but it is small and easy to rot. Galaxy is largest, it tastes decent. The easiest to grow is flat wonderful, red leaves with showy flowers, and set a lot of fruits. I also have a flat nectarine. Let me know if you want exchange scion wood
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What’s the name of the flat nectarine? From which nursery? Is it good?
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Sauzee swirl, very good taste white donut type nectarine.
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Best? Saturn is the best white one I’ve tasted, simply because it is very juicy and gets higher brix than any white peach I’ve ever eaten. However, in the humid regions all the saucer peaches are prone to rot and Saturn is also extremely attractive to birds, wasps and squirrels.
For me, the best overall saucer peach is TangO’s- but I prefer the peachier flavor of yellows and TangO’s gets up as much brix as any yellow I’ve tasted and is, hands down, the most original peach I grow. The texture isn’t to everyone’s liking but I suspect the problem may be inadequate thinning and picking a little too soon. When I offer potential customers one of my TangO’s they invariably want a tree, not one has ever suggested the texture is rubbery, it is just firmer than other peaches. The problem is in wet seasons most of the fruit just rots, even with the best fungicide protection.
In general, to really experience the best saucer peaches you have to think them like mad. I thin the TangO’s to just one fruit every 8-10 inches (very gradually so I don’t end up with a bunch of split rotting fruit) and they get double the size of ones I’ve seen at farmer’s markets and the quality of the fruit is sublime.
I call it the Mango peach.
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The tastiest one I had was Sweet Bagel. It was quite a bit sweeter than Saturn or TangOs. But it is extremely prone to rot and I had to remove it. All of the flat peaches are somewhat prone to rot and I don’t grow any of them any more. If I were to grow one though it would probably be TangOs.
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I have only grown Sweet Cap and Saturn. I started with Sweet Cap. It is quite large, easily twice as big as Saturn, if not more. Vigorous and a good setter. Problem was with fruit quality, not as sweet, not as melting, and a little bit of “green” taste in the background flavor. I pulled the tree out and grafted Saturn on to one of my existing trees.
I am exceedingly happy with Saturn. Kind of small, but the fruit quality is very good. I let the fruit set much closer to each other than I do on my normal peaches and the quality is still great. The skin tends to tear at the stem when picked. This can be minimized if you wait until they are very ripe before picking.
Some people say that Saturn is so sweet that it can be rather cloying, and I get that. The first one you eat can be a little off putting because of the sweetness / lack of acid. Unfortunately, I never seem to stop at the first one, and I get accustomed to the sweetness really fast.
My wife really likes them. Frankly, I prefer a good normal yellow peach, but Saturn is still really good.
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Thanks everyone. It seems like Tangos may be the best bet, which I already have. I should have trusted myself as I usually obsessively research varieties before buying trees. I think I may try to source some scion for Saturn , but even a lot Tangos gets wasted due to rot. I have about 5 other varieties of peaches and have zero rot issues on those, so maybe these doughnut peaches arent for us.
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Saturn is easier to grow here than TangO’s and if you are growing one you may as well graft a branch to be a scaffold of the other. Tango’s is more useful as a culinary fruit- it really holds some firmness when cooked. It also freezes very well. It’s my favorite peach, once harvested, as I lean more towards nectarines. It has a lot to do with getting the brix up in our often too wet weather. Nectarines tend to give me a few extra points.
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