Personally I like the contrast of the sour cherry with the sweet cherry. Local grocery sells a mix in the frozen section. I alternate sweet sour sweet sour!
IMO the sour fruit has less fruit sugar so to me that is the prefered fruit.
The graft is the weakest part of the tree. Some rootstock have weaker grafts than others and carefull reading of individual rootstock will tell you that--only one of all of them comes to mind,Geneva 30. Otherwise all the dwarfs must be staked. One suggestion is to have the stake be quite high, so perching birds will use the stake and not the whip which could cause the graft to break.
From Univeristy of Pennsylvania:
"Geneva 30 (G.30)
The advantages of this M.7-size rootstock are early production, fewer burr knots, and less suckering. Tests at Rock Springs do indicate that trees on this rootstock come into bearing earlier and produce more fruit than M.7. Unfortunately, questions have arisen about the graft compatibility of this rootstock with Gala. In tests around the country in the NC-140 trials, there have been occasions where Gala/G.30 have snapped off at the bud union during high winds. Therefore, it is recommended that if Gala is propagated on G.30, the trees be supported by two wires, one at approximately 36-40 inches above the ground and a second wire at 8-9 feet. Individual stakes or poles have not been sufficient because they allow excessive twisting of the trees in the wind."
Fireblight is not everywhere. I do know it is in my area. However as most people around here dont have fruit trees perhaps it will NOT arrive. I do have a couple pear trees, and they are still surviving with little care and lots of beating up by chickens. No fireblight on those.
Ceder APple rust is another that must be considered. Because of the wild cedars in the woods the risk is real.
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