21 of the Best Peach Varieties to Grow at Home
Here’s one of the things that drives me nuts about peach descriptions: “It tastes like summer.”
I understand the impulse to describe them that way, because peaches absolutely say summer to me.
But what does that actually mean? Is “summer” sugary and mild, melting on your tongue with each bite? Or is a “summer” peach acidic and pungent, with a bit of firmness?
There’s nothing wrong with any of these characteristics; all are fantastic. But they’re distinct experiences.
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Where I grew up, the acidic peach with tough, fuzzy skin was popular. So that kind speaks to me as the taste of summer.
But I have friends from the South who grew up with sugary sweet, low-acid peaches. To them, that flavor represents summer.
No one can tell you which is your ideal peach, so we’re going to help you narrow things down by introducing some of the most popular varieties, their main characteristics, and where they grow best.
Then, you can decide which one (or ones) will be your “taste of summer.”
Here’s the lineup:
Best Peach Varieties to Grow at HomeTo help us understand these trees, they are grouped into several categories.
The first is whether they are freestone, clingstone, or semi-freestone, also called semi-clingstone. This is a reference to the stone at the center of the fruit.
In the case of freestone types, the stone falls away easily and is barely attached to the flesh.
Clingstone peaches have pits that are difficult to separate from the flesh, and semi-freestone are somewhere in between.
Freestones were first bred by famous botanist and breeder Luther Burbank in the late
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