I have a 20 year old North Star cherry which in good years has produced well. This summer started to lose leaves in mid August (looked like yellow leaf wilt) but is now starting to act strange: it's put out new leaves and had one blossom. Really. In late september.

The master gardener came over and said it's time to replant; I can see that the trunk near the ground has structural problems: it's rotting from the inside like cherries do. Because when I put it in I didn't know to make sure there weren't narrow angle crotches that catch water.

Here's my thought: what about taking the chainsaw to the trunk and letting the root system sucker in the spring, picking out the best sucker and growing a new tree from it? About fifteen years ago 2/3 of the tree died, and the root system from that part of the tree sent up a heck of a sucker; since then the original 1/3 of the tree died but left a tree growing from the sucker.

Let me know your thoughts.