Last year my wife and I bought a house with a rather large,sickly looking tree in the backyard. An arborist told me it was an apricot, which really shouldn't be here, much less as large as this one. He also said it was dying and wouldn't produce anymore. Sure enough, it leafed out last year and we saw no fruit. The leaves looked sickly and full of holes.

I decided to prune some of the lower, clearly dead branches, and would see what happened. This year, parts of the tree are looking robust, with nice leaves and a handful of fruits. My neighbors found the fruits laying in their yard after I trimmed the part overhanging their driveway. We looked more closely, and saw that the tree has a number of small apricots, mostly in the upper, healthier looking parts of the tree.

But the holes in the leaves are back. Having done a lot of research on the web over the past few days, I find myself wondering if this tree is more sick than dying. It looks like its got shot hole for sure, and it clearly hasn't been pruned properly in many, many years as there are branches all throughout the center and crossing, basically it's a hot mess.

My question is, can an old tree like this be restored? My house is two stories with a short attic and the tree is as tall as the house. It stretches more than twenty five feet across and is about 24" in diameter. What should I do to find out more about restoring it?

Any suggestions appreciated.