Not all peaches are the same: the approximately 3000 different varieties of the sweet "fruit of immortality" worldwide differ in appearance, taste and other properties. There are also varieties such as nectarines - which are basically just hairless peaches - and the so-called wild peaches.

Wild peaches come from cultivated cultivation

So-called "wild peaches" have been available in supermarkets for a number of years, but they are anything but wild. The fruits look like flattened balls, which is why they are also called flat or plate peaches. Other variety designations are u. a. Mountain peach or Saturn peach (because of the Saturn ring). Contrary to what the name "wild peach" might suggest, these flat varieties of peach are not picked in the wild, but are grown quite conventionally on orchards.

Flat peaches have a very fine aroma

However, the flat peaches far surpass their spherical cousins in terms of taste and juiciness: flat peaches have a wonderfully fine aroma, are very sweet and very juicy - but only if they are actually ripe on the tree. Naturally, post-ripened peaches will never be able to achieve the sweetness and juiciness of fully ripe peaches. The plate peaches are ideal for eating raw, but also for preserving or for special dishes.

Growing flat peaches in the garden

You can also buy young flat peach trees in the fruit trade under the designation “plate peach” or “saturn peach”, which you can plant in your own garden. These peaches have the same requirements as their normal cousins, but are particularly sensitive to the peaches' curling disease. Flat peaches therefore always have to be sprayed.

More wild rarities

Instead of the supposedly wild plate peaches, you can also plant other wild peaches that not everyone actually has. These include i.a.

  • Red wild peach (from southern Russia)
  • White Chinese peach (wild peach from Asia)

The Red Wild Peach

This rarity comes from southern Russia and develops medium-sized, yellow to red fruits. The shrub, which is up to three meters high, is very robust, frost hardy and also insensitive to leaf curl.

The white Chinese peach

Strictly speaking, this late-ripening variety is also not a wild peach, as it is very often and willingly cultivated throughout Asia. The fruits are only slightly red, but very aromatic.

tips and tricks

wild peaches, d. H. the flat peach, only grow in particularly suitable locations and, above all, treat them regularly against curling disease and other fungal diseases.

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Trees