Suckers probably aren't going to be the best approach. Reason is it's probably grown on a rootstock different from the fruiting part of the tree. For grafting you need wood from the strongest growing shoots last year. These might be in the top of the tree or a strong watersprout lower down. Cut those shoots from the base of last seasons growth with about 4-5 buds. Save them in the frige wrapped in a moist towel in a ziplock bag. Preferably away from any ripening fruit. Graft after the rootstock starts growing in spring. For T budding in late spring you take wood from the strongest new growth and immediately T bud it onto a rootstock like Gisela 5 or Krymsk 6 from Raintree nursery. This is the easiest way because you don't need to store the wood. If all that seems too difficult, try to find someone to graft or bud your wood. There are pros that do this for a fee but I don't have their names. The post below might help. It asks the same question for apple. Here is a link that might be useful: saving an old apple This post was edited by fruitnut on Sun, Feb 10, 13 at 13:15

Yikes! didn't want to drown them, but they seemed dry to me... I did take them out of the water, shook off the excess and wrapped the roots up in plastic bags...it's supposed to stop snowing late tonight, hopefully the soil will dry out a bit so i can plant tomorrow. I thought about heeling them into my nursery bed, but they're calling for a low of 20 tonight, and they've all broken bud. THey're from Gurney's, and the trees look really nice. Don't want to plant them in their permanent spot because it's been snowing/raining for 5 days straight, and i just hate the idea of working such wet soil....they're going into one end of the garden i broke sod on last year, and i wanted to do a bit of ammending, too. I live on a glacial sand moraine, my next-door neighbor is a gravel pit, excessively well-drained is an understatement. MAN oh man am I glad I didn't order the other 10 trees yet!!! THanks!

looknup: You could cut the tree down to about half it's current height and hold it there with regular summer pruning. However it would be difficult to reduce the width too drastically at the same time. This is still going to leave you with about the same area shaded by the tree. If you prune very hard and dilligently for 4-5 yrs then you could probably reduce the "footprint" by a significant amount. One advantage of doing this on cherry is that the harvest is early. So there would be plenty of time to cut the tree back after harvest. I'm cutting back a Gala apple. Probably removed about 1/3 of the top about a month ago after harvest. There has been no regrowth so far. I'm sure there will be some strong shoots next spring from the area of the major cuts. I'll remove those next spring/summer as needed to keep the middle of the tree open. I think it's worth trying on your tree. If it doesn't work or is too much work, you can take more drastic action later. The Fruitnut

The tree is big enough that if it would fall, it would land on one my neighbors' houses. ==>>> a good neighbor would not allow threats to their neighbors on their property ... eh??? its not uncommon.. when you drastically change the culture of a forest.. or a property with a lot of trees ... some damage might happen to what was left ... all the air currents and paths changed .. etc ... so it might not surprise me.. that you got some damage from wind ... in this case, a storm ... perhaps even ... that branch was somehow damaged by the removal of the others ... but it doesnt necessarily mean ... the tree is going to fall down ... perhaps an on site assessment by a certified tree surgeon would be worth it??? ... not every guy with a chainsaw is such ... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=isa+certified+tree+surgeon&t=ffcm&ia=about does the tree lean? ken