I have not seen any SCIENTIFIC data to substantiate this treatment, you being....really....a journalist.
Thank you dear friend for that compliment--I'm proud to be so--journalists have to document valid and relevant sources to pass review. Much harder than quoting one guy's ideas on an unrelated condition from 1986 as "thou-shalt-not" gospel. :msp_sleep:
Here's your data:
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/mgtemp/classes/plant_disease/EB1013.pdf
Burning cankers to cauterize them
is a method which comes from New
Zealand. Tree fruit owners use a
propane torch to cauterize cankers on
the trunk and larger branches. They
direct flames on the canker until the
underlying tissue begins to crackle
and char (5 to 20 seconds). Treatment
must extend to the outer canker
margins, where active bacterial
infection occurs. Treated cankers are
inspected in 15 to 20 days. Cankers
should be heated again if the
disease continues to show activity
beyond the burnt area. Cauterizing
should take
place in early spring, before bloom,
when the bacteria are active, and
the cankers are enlarging. Cankers
observed in the fall should be
cauterized immediately to prevent
spread of the disease during cool,
rainy fall and winter weather.
Several months following treatment,
charred tissue will slough off, leaving
a well-formed callus.
and from
http://www.extension.uidaho.edu/nursery/Landscape problems/Bacterial Canker of Stone Fruit Trees.pdf
There is no complete control by
any single method for bacterial canker and gummosis of stone fruit trees but
there are many useful practices that can help reduce the risk of infestation. ...
Cankers can be controlled by cauterization with a hand help propane burner in
early to mid spring. Hold the flame up to the canker for fifteen to twenty seconds
until the bark and underlying tissue begins to crackle and crinkle. If it is
necessary you can repeat this method in 2-3 weeks (Agrios, 445). ...
Works cited
Agrios, G.N. (1997). Plant Pathology. 4th Ed., Academic Press, San Diego, CA
As for the assessment, its too big to attach. i can email it if you want.