>
> I also have an old orchard (old trees, some ten years without pruning and
> quite overgrown in wild blackberries and , but very alive). There are some
> "oldfashioned" apples and pears and I would like to recover them if
> possible.
> How to recover an old fruit tree?
I guess it should be possible to graft branches of those trees on new young
trees, if nothing else helps. But you should search for expert advice.
You can try to contact Eckart Brandt, (http://www.boomgarden.de), but I am
not sure he understands english (thanks Ute for the hint).