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Well, I mean an expert on old, overgrown, neglected apple trees, not an old expert! I was fortunate recently to acquire a 2 acre piece of property with a house from 1939 which needs fixing up purty cheap. Along with the house came an old apple tree, probably from 1939 too!

Look at these photos! Have you ever seen so many holes in the bark of a tree? I couldn't believe it. My dad thinks it's some kind of worm/caterpillar. I was thinking it might be a woodpecker or flicker because so many of the holes seem to be in a parallel line configuration. I was visualizing the bird working its way around the trunk pecking away! Don't know. Some limbs have a lot of bark completely missing as you can see.

Despite all this damage, overgrowth and neglect it had a million blossoms on it this spring and now has apples. It's not loaded but has some. Don't know the kind of tree, but pretty sure it's a full size tree, not dwarf or semi dwarf. It stands probably about 25 feet high or more.
Wondering what to do. Will probably get a tree expert in next fall for possible pruning and some kind of treatment. Would like to save it if possible. Any suggestions?attachment=0]apple 3.JPG[/attachment]

Get a good fruitman in on your tree Taiji
Not just a man who chops trees !!
Most old trees can be re-structured ....but it does take someone who really knows apple trees.
A tree that old will nearly always have a multitude of holes and marks...part of its character !
Some of our oldies are almost hollow.
Woodpeckers are the usual culprits. Although where large branches have been removed badly there can be weather erosion that rots the tree.

woodpeckers would have been my thought. This is a picture of damage done to an old pear tree by yellow bellied sapsucker (which is a kind of woodpecker):


https://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I ... D-0143.jpg

Yes, I know I need to get someone with good recommendations and experience to do any cutting. Any old dufus can just start cutting away, including me! The tree does have character; I won't cut it down. I'll be able to tell more next fall after the leaves fall. I don't think the trunks are hollow.

Wow, rainbow. That looks exactly like the kind of damage on my tree. The parallel lines, especially if you zoom in on my 3rd pic. You have to be right, it has to be a bird. I don't know if we have yellow bellied sapsuckers around here or not. We have some woodpeckers, not many, but I know our main culprits are flickers. They can inflict incredible damage on houses. Haven't seen any around there yet tho. What amazes me is how the tree can withstand all that.

There's also a nice pear tree on the property, but no pears that I can see, nice foliage tho. And of couple of small dilapidated peach trees I think.
Thx.

OP - those are definitely Sapsucker holes. The other varieties of Woodpeckers aren't quite as OCD about lining up the holes they drill - lol! Oh, & Arizona hosts both Yellow-bellied & Red-naped Sapsuckers, so you could have either one or both. Lucky you! Here are some links to Sapsucker info:

https://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_sap/sap.htm

https://forestry.about.com/od/forestheal ... pecker.htm

If it is woodpeckers as it appears to be that means the tree has lots of problems, in which case planting new dwarf apple trees somewhere on the property of varieties you actually like and do well where you live would be a better alternative. As to whether it is a full size tree, that depends on what it turns out to be. That size could be semi-dwarf for about 1/3rd of the old line apple varieties. The amount of money you would have to pay to attempt to rejuvenate an old tree the woodpeckers are already going after that heavily would be less than getting new trees and in the end you might decide to pay someone to just take it down. You might check fruit care books at you local library. There are several out there that have fairly good instructions on how to rejuvenate an old neglected fruit tree, I won't recommend any, since I have no way of knowing what you might be able to get you hands on. At very least get one of them and read what is involved before you decide on calling someone in or not.