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Dolgo crabapples make a flavorful, ruby-red jelly using no other ingredients besides sugar and water.

Perry is a fermented beverage (like wine or cider) produced from pears. Just as the best cider requires apple varieties selected for the purpose, high-quality perry requires perry pears.

I planted 11 perry pears in 2004 at my home orchard in Zone 4a in Nerstrand, MN. All trees became established and grew well until the winter of 2008-2009, which was quite cold but not unusually so, with temperatures dipping to around -25 degrees F. None of the 30 or so known hardy fruit trees (including Seckel, Luscious, and Stancyville pears) at our location were injured.

Most people thinking of starting or expanding a home orchard are doing so to provide a supply of fresh fruit for the table. In the post-1950 era, with supermarkets in every town and refrigerators in every kitchen, it is important to reconnect with the seasonal rhythms of nature as part of the planning process.

When starting new bare-root trees purchased from a nursery, I have found that nearly 100% survival can be achieved the first year provided that the nursery stock is of high quality, is planted before breaking dormancy, and receives sufficient water. The three greatest causes of young tree mortality, for me, have been browsing by deer, girdling by mice, and crown rot due to poorly drained soil or wet thatch.

Apples

With apples, it is my experience that dwarf and semi-dwarf trees generally bear their first sizable crop of fruit the 5th year after nursery stock is planted. This is often preceded by a trivially small crop – a dozen fruit or fewer – the during the 4th year.

The cold winters and short growing season in Minnesota require, in most cases, plants adapted specifically for such conditions. Consequently, much of the advice you may find in general-interest gardening books, magazines, and catalogs doesn't apply.

In general, fruit trees are not grown on their own roots. They are grafted, with the rootstock being chosen for particular traits like size control, disease resistance and soil compatibility, and the scion (which forms the top of the tree) chosen for the fruit it produces.

This is the download page for Nerstrand Music Publications. Our mission is to provide high quality editions of standard organ repertoire unhindered by the usual restrictions of copyright. Each edition is based on an out-of-copyright source, and has been re-engraved and re-edited to incorporate modern notational conventions and to add any important changes based on current scholarship. While some editions do include editorial commentary, our goal is to provide a basic edition for those learning the repertoire as well as for use in worship, rather than a scholarly reference.