Pretty old apple tree in the garden which produces hundreds of not-great-tasting apples every year looks like it’s in a bit of a state. I had to cut back a weird branch that had been cut before, presumably because it shot out horizontally, and there’s a ton of rot.
It’s not in danger of hitting any buildings if it ever does fall, although could maybe take out a distracted child or two if I’m lucky.
Is there anything I can do to save it?
Not the question you’re asking, but if it’s going to stick around for a while you can graft material from any tasty apple tree onto any other apple tree and that branch will give you tasty apples.
There are companies that go through and change over entire grown orchards to a new kind of apple, lopping off all branches and shoving in a few inches of scion material from the desired variety into each branch stump. They grow to full sized branches shockingly quickly and produce the next year.