Are my trees diseased?

After years of neglecting my garden, I decided I would start to make an effort to tidy it up. I started by pruning an apple tree that had become overgrown and seemed to be diseased - possibly because fallen fruit had been left to rot?

Anyway, looking around the garden, I noticed the same black patches on the leaves of other trees and saw areas of dead looking branches.

Are my trees diseased? And if so, can I cure them, or do they need to come down?

I've taken some pictures so you can see what I'm trying to describe.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Matt

 

Hi Matt

Your trees appear to be suffering from bacterial, fungal and insect infections. The large lesions on the branches are bacterial canker, which you can't do anything about. You may want to reduce the weight in the branches to prevent them snapping out, as the one stem looks quite weak. Some general tidying up and formative/remedial pruning may assist in the other matters too.