Siberian peach represents a large wild population of species peaches spread out in northern China found growing in the cold dry deserts to the mountains. The fruit is collected as a wild peach just in the same way people collect wild blueberries in North America. Siberian peach is highly resistant to insects and diseases and is fully one zone cold hardier than most peaches. Our small planting is due to the improvement of this strain from Miekal of Driftless Sacred Grove in Wisconsin where he created larger fruited selections of this wild peach.
My first experience with this peach was at Cornell University at a fruit show I was attending. Here they were using it as a rootstock for cultivated peaches. The white rather coarse flesh had a sweet flavor and was roughly half the size of a normal peach reaching up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Yields were very high and the ground underneath the tree was completely carpeted with peaches.
| Plant Specs |
| Genus & Species |
Prunus sibirica |
| Seed Source |
Wisconsin-Cultivated with other peaches |
| Hardiness |
-20 F to -30 F |
| Height (ft) |
15-20 |
| Width (ft) |
15-20 |
| Pollination Requirements |
Self fertile but will cross with other peaches. |
| Soil |
Sandy loam-well drained soils. |
| Climate |
Zone 4ish to Zone 7 |
| Ease of Cultivation |
Said to be the most insect and disease resistant peach. The flavor is more like a white peach and usually has a course flesh although this seed selection might be slightly better. Very cold hardy peach but flowers early so that can be an issue with late frosts. |
