These areas are surrounded by what
would pass for an inky blue or black stain on the bark of the tree.
Within the cankers are reddish-brown areas covered with a gelatinous
material that is very slow to dry after a rainy day.

Those are excellent pictures. However, that doesn't look like Nectria
canker. Nectria produces pink eruptions on the affected area, like really
bad acne, and the spore mass is initially powdery, and then, when the
sexual state has formed, spores ooze out in little horns. You have some
sort of slime flux. It could be a bacterium coming in after a fungus like
Botryosphaeria.

At any rate, the treatment is the same: you have to cut off the cankers
well beneath diseased tissue. Do this on a dry day so you don't
contaminate the cut wound.

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Evergreen Gardenworks++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++