What Types of Peaches Are There? Learn How to Pick the Tastiest Varieties

Summer is one of the seasons for a bountiful peach harvest. There are many varieties of peaches, and peaches grown in different regions vary in taste and aroma due to differences in soil, rainfall, and cultivation methods. Here, we have compiled the types of peaches, as well as tips on how to select peaches.

1. What types of peaches are there?

1. Yangshan Peach

Yangshan peach is known for its tender flesh, abundant juice, rich fragrance, mellow flavor, and sweet deliciousness, with a very fresh, tender, and smooth texture. Compared with peaches from other places, Yangshan peach is very tender; once you tear open the skin, the juice flows out, and it generally does not have a tough texture that is hard to bite through. Therefore, it is also called “Jade Dew Peach”.

2. Shinchuan Nakashima Peach

Introduced from Japan; it is an extra-large-fruited peach with a brilliant appearance and an extremely sweet flavor. Its average sugar content is 21%, with a maximum of 26%, as sweet as granulated sugar. It has a high self-pollination fruit-setting rate and high yield, and can replace the pollenless white-flower series varieties, with prospects for promotion. Young trees grow vigorously, and new shoots branch multiple times; if combined with 2-3 pinching treatments, a stable high-yielding tree structure can be formed in the same year. Young trees flower easily and bear fruit early; they bloom in the second year after planting, with a 100% fruit-setting rate. Initial-bearing trees mainly bear fruit on long and medium fruit branches, while trees in full bearing mainly bear fruit on medium and short fruit branches. The self-pollination rate is extremely high, so fruit thinning must be strict. The fruit ripens in late July to early August.

3. Xiangshan Peach

Xiangshan peach, also known as Early Okubo, has medium tree vigor and a semi-spreading tree posture. The fruit is nearly round, with abundant pollen. The average single fruit weight is 204 grams, and the largest single fruit weight is 290 grams. The flesh is milky white, with red near the pit under the skin. The flesh is soft, juicy, sweet, and aromatic. The pit is clingstone. The soluble solids content is 12%. The fruit development period is 91 days, and the harvest period is early July.

4. Yuandong White Peach

? Yuandong white peach was selected and bred by the Yuandong Horticultural Farm in Jinhua County, Zhejiang. The fruit is ovate to round, with a shallow suture. The average single fruit weight is 286 grams, and the largest is 485 grams. The peel is white with a yellow tint, and the sunny side has intermittent red stripes. The flesh is milky white with a yellow tint, without red pigment, fine in texture, soft and juicy, with few fibers, and a rich, sweet flavor with fragrance. The soluble solids content is 14%. Clingstone. It ripens in the Jinhua area from late May to early to mid-June, is storage- and transport-tolerant, and can be processed into canned fruit. It has extremely strong resistance to anthracnose and bacterial shot hole disease. The planting density can reach 89-110 plants per mu, cross-pollination, and a pollinizer tree is needed. The tree vigor is medium, the canopy is open, and it is high-yielding and stable-yielding.

5. Shenzhen Peach.

Shenzhen peach is renowned at home and abroad and has a cultivation history of more than 2,000 years since the Han and Tang dynasties. The Tang dynasty poet Cui Hu's “The peach blossoms and the fair face reflect each other's red” became an eternal masterpiece. Shenzhou City has adopted innovative ideas and cooperated with the Hebei Provincial Fruit Research Institute for many years to comprehensively improve Shenzhou honey peach through green, pollution-free methods and scientific and technological improvement, and has bred a new Shenzhou honey peach variety, the “21st Century” honey peach, also known as “Shenmi No. 1”. The “21st Century” honey peach is praised as the “king of fruits” for its large size, elegant fruit shape, brilliant color, thick flesh, unique flavor, and honey-sweet juice.“

6. Fenghuang Peach

Fenghuang peach has a cultivation history of nearly 70 years. It is renowned at home and abroad for its beautiful shape, brilliant color, excellent taste, fine flesh, tough and easy-to-peel skin, abundant sweet juice, rich fragrance, and melt-in-the-mouth texture. Fenghuang peach has more than 30 varieties, including Chunlei, Zaohualu, Xiahui No. 1, Yuhualu, Yinhualu, Zhaoxia, Baifeng, Zhaohui, and others.

7. Fenghua Peach

Fenghua peach is known as the “best in China” and also has the reputation of “nectar and jade dew, a precious delicacy of the Yaochi”. It is famous for its beautiful fruit shape, fine and soft flesh, and juicy sweetness. Fenghua peach ripens from late July to early August each year, with an average single fruit weight of 125 grams. The fruit is round or ovate, with a slightly pointed tip. The suture between the two halves is shallow and obvious. The peel is pale yellow-green, with a red blush on the sunny side. The skin is thin and tough, easy to peel. The flesh is yellow-white, purplish red near the pit, fine and soft in texture, juicy, sweet, and aromatic. The soluble solids content is 13%-15%. Clingstone.

2. How to choose tastier peaches

1. Look at the size

Do not assume that the bigger the peach, the better. If you choose the largest peaches, they may have been produced with chemicals, and the pit inside is very likely cracked. If you buy such peaches and take them home, you will find that they only grew in size but do not taste good at all. Therefore, try to choose those of moderate size.

2. Look at the fruit shape

The fruit shape of a peach should be very regular. Do not choose oddly shaped ones that look abnormal. In addition, those with a relatively flat and round fruit tip and a shallow suture also taste better. When buying, avoid peaches with wormholes; these must not be purchased.

3. Smell the aroma

If the peaches are to be eaten immediately after being taken home, it is recommended to choose those that give off an aroma when smelled. Generally, the stronger the aroma, the riper they are. If the peaches have little aroma, it means they are not ripe enough, and it is not recommended to buy them for eating.

4. Look at the weight

When buying peaches, you can consider choosing medium-sized ones. In addition, among the same variety and same size, weigh them by hand to see which peach feels heavier. If it is heavier, it means it is fresher, contains more water, and has more sugar, so you can choose to buy it.