KALAMAZOO
1. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 27, 28, 192. 1893. 2. Ibid. 143. 1894. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 33. 1899. 4. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:217. 1899. 5. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:348. 1903. 6. Mich. Sta. Sp. Bul. 44:49 fig., 50. 1910. 7. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 203. 1913.
Before peach-growers had Elberta, Kalamazoo was a promising yellow-fleshed, freestone variety. The fruit is better in quality than Elberta but not as showy in appearance and the trees are not quite as productive. Kalamazoo ripens with Late Crawford and could well compete with that variety for the trees are hardier in wood and bud and are much more productive. The variety falls short, however, in the size of the peaches, these running no larger than a medium Late Crawford, though possibly this defect could be remedied by thinning. The fruits are of highest quality either for dessert or culinary purposes. The trees are susceptible to leaf-curl and must be thoroughly sprayed for this fungus. The variety is grown rather extensively in Michigan and is well known in parts of New York.
Kalamazoo originated with J. N. Stearns, Kalamazoo, Michigan, about 1869, as a sprout from below the bud on a Yellow Alberge tree. It first fruited in 1871 and was exhibited that year at the Michigan State Fair where it received a premium as the best seedling peach. The American Pomological Society placed Kalamazoo in its fruit-list in 1899 where it still remains.
KALAMAZOO
Tree large, spreading, vigorous, open-topped, very productive; trunk medium in thickness and smoothness; branches stocky, nearly smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets long, with internodes of medium length, dark pinkish-red with a small amount of olive-green, smooth, glabrous, with lenticels of medium number and size.
Leaves six and one-half inches long, one and three-eighths inches wide, nearly flat or curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark olive-green, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; apex narrow-acuminate; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with one to six small, reniform, reddish-brown glands variable in position.
Flower-buds hardy, conical, somewhat pointed, pubescent, partly appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers pale pink, white at the center of the petals, one and one-eighth inches across; pedicels short, medium to slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, orange-colored within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes medium to narrow, acute, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals oval to somewhat ovate, irregular in outline near the base, tapering to narrow claws occasionally reddish at the base; filaments one-half inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, equal to or shorter than the stamens.
Fruit matures late; two and three-eighths inches long, two and seven-sixteenths inches wide, roundish-oval, often compressed, with unequal sides; cavity rather wide, flaring to abrupt; suture indistinct becoming more pronounced toward the tip; apex ending in a small, elongated point; color greenish-yellow becoming yellow, with a faint or distinct blush usually extending over one-fourth of the surface, mottled; pubescence thick, fine; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh light yellow, stained with red near the pit, juicy, tender, sweet, mild; good in quality; stone free or nearly so, one and one-half inches long, one and one-sixteenths inches wide, oval to ovate, bulged on one side, winged near the base, the surfaces pitted and grooved near the apex; ventral suture very deeply grooved at the sides, medium in width; dorsal suture winged, grooved deeply.