Mahuang Peaches

Mahuang Peaches

　　Farmers in Mahuang originally had the habit of planting peach trees around their homes to beautify the environment and develop courtyard economies. The varieties included local fuzzy peaches, fragrant peaches, and winter peaches. In the early 1990s, large-scale contiguous planting began. Currently, the county’s cultivation area covers 12,000 mu, with an annual total output of 3,000–4,000 tons. Peaches have become one of the county’s most widely cultivated and diverse fresh deciduous small fruits. Early-maturing varieties include Beijing 26, Honey Peach, and Early-Maturing Nectarine, while mid- to late-maturing varieties include Okubo, Shandong Peach, Laishan Honey Peach, Chinese Longevity Peach, Yihong Honey Peach, and Yellow Peach. Among these, Okubo and Shandong Peach have the largest cultivation areas, covering approximately 6,000 mu. When peaches come to market, trading hubs bustle with activity. Farmers harvest the fruit around 4 or 5 p.m., bring it to market in the city at 4 or 5 a.m. the next morning, and sales typically wind down by around 10 a.m. The peaches are distributed via train and truck, and Mahuang Peaches hold nearly half of the sales markets in nearby cities such as Huaihua, Jishou, Zhangjiajie, and Changsha.

　　Okubo peaches are divided into Early Okubo and Late Okubo. The fruit is nearly round, large in size, with an average single fruit weight of 210 grams and a maximum of 350 grams. The fruit top is flat, the stem is relatively short, and the coloring is good. The flesh is white, crisp, juicy, and tender. It has a soluble solid content of over 14.5%, is freestone, has high sugar content, low fiber, a well-balanced sweet-and-sour taste, firm texture, and is highly resistant to storage and transport. At room temperature, it can remain shelf-stable for 15 days without spoiling, and when cold-stored, it remains fresh for two months. The trees bear fruit early and are highly productive—typically bearing fruit in the second year after planting and reaching peak yield in the fourth year, with yields of over 2,000 kilograms per mu. Early Okubo matures in late June, while Late Okubo ripens in late July to early August. Yihong Honey Peach has a round shape, milky-white flesh with a red blush, fully red and smooth skin, and an attractive appearance. The flesh is fine, crisp, clingstone, very juicy and sweet, non-melting, with a soluble solid content of 19% and excellent quality. The average single fruit weight is 200 grams, with a maximum of over 500 grams. It ripens from late July to early August, does not drop easily, stores relatively well, has a high self-fertility rate, and is early-bearing and high-yielding. Laishan Honey Peach is a new crisp-sweet peach variety recently introduced from Shandong. It has a slightly tall round shape, weighs 300 grams per fruit on average, with a maximum of 800 grams, bright red skin, very tender and extremely sweet flesh. It ripens in early September, stores and transports well, and has broad development potential.

　　Currently, the main production areas of high-quality peaches in our county are the “lower mountainous region” towns such as Lanli, Lüxikou, Gaocun, Yanmen, and Gudapo, which account for over 70% of the county’s total annual output. With the completion and opening of the Huaiyu Railway, the “upper mountainous region” towns such as Changtan, Jinhe, Jiangkouxu, and Tanjiazhai will also develop large-scale peach cultivation. Mahuang’s high-quality peaches will stand out as a premier fresh deciduous fruit, produced on a larger scale and with superior quality.