Saturn Peach Tree

Saturn Peach Tree

Saturn Peach Tree is a freestone^{[6] [8]}, self-fertile, flat peach tree grown for its unusual doughnut-shaped fruit that is of particular appeal to children. The fruit is yellow-red on the outside and sweet white flesh inside and you can usually push the pit or stone out with your thumb.

The pink spring blossom grows into peaches that can be picked from August. Also known as a doughnut peach tree, donut peach tree and flat peach tree. ^[1] This is mainly a fresh-eating peach, best picked when ripe and eaten soon after harvesting rather than treated as a long-storing fruit. ^{[1] [2] [3] [6] [8]}

As Saturn is self-fertile, you do not need a second peach tree for pollination. That makes it useful for smaller gardens where there is only room for one peach tree. Like other peaches, it flowers early in the year, so hand-pollinating the blossom with a small paintbrush on dry, sunny days can still help fruit set if pollinating insects are scarce. ^{[1] [3]}

We sell Saturn Peach Tree as a 2–3 year plant in a 7L pot, grown as a bush on St Julien A rootstock and should start to fruit 1-2 years after planting. This is a semi-vigorous rootstock, not a naturally dwarf patio peach, so Saturn should be treated as a proper garden peach tree reaching 3.5 - 5m tall at maturity.

Donut / Stark Saturn cultivar records describe the tree as vigorous and very productive, so the variety has good cropping potential in the right conditions, but crops will still depend on warmth, blossom protection, watering, pruning and peach leaf curl control. ^{[1] [2] [5] [6] [8]} Under the right conditions, a planted St Julien A peach tree can be expected to provide around 19kg of fruit as a bush and 9kg if trained as a fan shape.

Saturn Peach Fruit Thinning

Saturn has good cropping potential, so fruit thinning is worth doing if the tree sets a heavy crop. RHS advises thinning peaches to one fruit every 10cm when they are about hazelnut-sized, then thinning again to one fruit every 20–25cm when they are about walnut-sized. This gives the remaining peaches more room to swell and reduces strain on heavily cropped branches. ^[3]

Planting a Saturn Peach Tree

The best place for Saturn is a warm, sunny, sheltered position with moist but well-drained soil. A south-facing or west-facing wall or fence is ideal because it gives extra warmth, helps the fruit ripen and makes frost and rain protection easier. Avoid cold, exposed positions, frost pockets, waterlogged ground and north-facing walls.

RHS recommends fan training for peaches, although in warm, sheltered parts of southern England they can be grown as free-standing bushes. ^{[1] [3]}

Saturn is hardy to RHS H4, which means the tree is hardy through most of the UK, with a temperature range of around -10°C but that doesn't apply to the blossoms, they are ok down to -1°C. Peach flowers can be damaged by spring frost, so protect blossom with fleece when frost is forecast, especially while the tree is young or planted in an exposed site. ^{[1] [3]}

Water well after planting, keep the area around the base free from grass and weeds, and water regularly through the first growing season while the tree establishes.

Do not bury the graft union. Keep the point where the variety is grafted onto the rootstock above soil level.

Watering matters, especially while fruit is swelling. Container-grown peaches and newly planted trees dry out faster than established trees in open ground, so do not allow the roots to dry badly in spring and summer. Irregular watering can affect fruit development and may lead to fruit drop. ^[3]

Prune peaches in spring or summer, not in winter. RHS recommends spring and summer pruning for peach fans, and pruning after harvest for free-standing trees in milder, sheltered situations. This timing helps reduce the risk of silver leaf and bacterial canker problems associated with pruning stone fruits at the wrong time. ^{[1] [3]}

Peach Leaf Curl Resistance

No peach leaf curl resistance is mentioned by the growers so treat Saturn Peach the same as most other peaches i.e. for best results provide rain shelter from January to May^{[2] [4]}

This is done by building a shelter over the top to prevent water hitting new bud growth and spreading the fungus that creates peach leaf curl. Keep the sides of the shelter open to allow the pollinating buzzies in to do their job.

Other Allegedly Interesting Information About Saturn Peach Tree

RHS lists this variety as Prunus persica ‘Saturne’, with peach ‘Saturn’ as another common name. Ordinary buyers are more likely to know it as Saturn Peach Tree, flat peach tree, doughnut peach tree, donut peach tree or peento peach. ^{[1] [6]}

Frank P Matthews also mentions the nickname ‘Sat-on’, a simple joke about the fruit looking as though it has been squashed flat. It is not a formal cultivar name, but it does help explain why Saturn is such a memorable peach. ^[2]

The naming history is not completely tidy. Some European records connect SATURNE® with the cultivar name ‘Bailou’, while UC Davis Foundation Plant Services lists a Donut peach with synonyms including Stark Saturn, Saucer, Peento and N.J. F-2. For the customer, the useful point is simpler: this is the distinctive flat peach type with sweet flesh, not a standard round peach. ^{[6] [7]}