[cooperman]

I noticed that my local little nursery has just had some of these in for the first time, the new gisella dwarfing rootstock is supposed to be brilliant, anyone tried these out yet?

[viettaclark]

Haven't tried them (there are two,,,the 5 or 6) but they do need permanent staking unless you wall train them. They're supposed to be sweet and of course, easy to net and pick at that height. I would think the roots would be less invasive as well.
I'm contemplating cutting down the ancient HUGE tree I've got because it's leaning quite dangerously and a couple of small ones would be great for me....but the birds will suffer...
I'd be interested to see what people reckon about them.

[simonwatson]

For a dwarf tree you want Gisella 5. Gisella 6 will still give you a pretty big tree. A big bonus with Gisella 5 is that you're supposed to get cherries from about year 3. The nursery I bought my trees from says this:

Good fertile soil. Ground should be cleared of weeds and grass. Staking required for the first 5 years. Very sensitive to systemic herbicides such as Glyphosate the use of which should be avoided around young trees.

[viettaclark]

Thanx Simon.