What viruses/viroids can they test for?
What do you mean when you say witch-broom with Cannabis? I’m familiar with it on other plants like trees but I’m not sure I’ve seen what you’re talking about on any of mine. I’ve heard other people mention it, and my growth was “weird and bunched up” in places, sure, just didn’t look all that similar like yours.
Is that what happens in the “final stages” of hplvd then? Once I saw the brittle stems and no trichomes/smell that was enough for me lol.
There are no real “final stages” but it can go as far as complete necrosis.
Unlike other viruses like fusarium, an infection is an infection and if HpLVd is on board your genetics will always have the propensity to exhibit symptoms as described above. Dudding, low yield, low growth, brittle horizontal branching, witches broom, etc.
I restarted from seed not too long ago as well. Only had 2 outside cuttings and practice pretty good tool hygiene but was worried nonetheless.
I won’t be trying to source clones anymore and will be just hunting for my own stuff from seed and doing small breeding projects.
" DAVIS, Calif., Aug. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Dark Heart Industries, California’s leading cannabis genetics company, has completed 200,000 tissue tests for Hop Latent Viroid (HpLVd) and uncovered startling new statistics about the impact of the disease on America’s legal cannabis industry.
Dark Heart performed tests for more than 100 cannabis growers across California from August 2018 until July 2021. Results show that more than 33% of the tests from almost 90% of the cultivation sites were positive for HpLVd and supports projections by cannabis industry analysts that Hop Latent Viroid affects more than 30% of all cannabis plants. This translates into more than $4 billion in annual losses for US growers who are forecast to produce more than seven million pounds of legal cannabis in 2021*."
Question please. I can’t find the info but I presume everything Dark Heart sells as clones has been tested and certified clean of all issues??
I just got a couple weeks ago a cut of Black Cuban that had the Dark Heart plant tag in the package. I have 4 other strains at the moment and depending on cost I’d seriously consider having them all tested. As a small personal grower I don’t plan on adding anything else for quite some time to my mom space. I’m presuming if all are clean now they should remain so.
People are still reporting getting other pests with dark heart clones, someone had a picture of some dark heart cuts absolutely riddled with root aphids last week. It doesn’t inspire confidence lol.
I bought a Blue Dream teen from them a couple of months back and it is one of the unhealthiest plants in my nursery. I have it in tissue culture and as I optimize a protocol for it I will take meristems and get it tested. (If I decide to keep it.)
I thought the meristem culturing is how you got rid of the virus, so testing mature growth was the way to find the infection.
Did you ever clean the romulan?
Meristem is your best attempt to remove anything endogenous but I did nodal culture. I typically start with that to figure out what protocols work best
I’m just starting to look into tissue culturing and the process. But the different mix/protocols needed for each plant at different stages does get daunting. Thought about the media and hormone kit, but would need to at least make a positive pressure chamber with filtered air, if not a laminar hood build to do this.
Im still trying to play catch up to just the basic info on these diseases and the whole tissue culture scene. Doesnt seem like a DIY at home type project, more like a real lab controlled process. I want to simply find out how much per plant to test for these diseases and go from there. I dont see me adding a bunch more cuts to restore my core of moms. I just want another MAC1 which I originally got via Pink Box and feel pretty safe they offer clean tested clones. I hope.
None of the Romulan seedlings that I had made it.
She’s pretty active on the Home Tissue Culture Facebook group. There are a bunch of people that are simply goo goo gaa gaa over philodendrons the way we are over cannabis
Want to see her do it topless 
Cleaning tools with alcohol has been shown to be ineffective against hplvd. Use Virkon S soaks or flame/heat sterilizationfor your tools.
I now use a glass bead sterilizer with 4-5 pairs of scissors that live in it. I grab a clean pair for each plant and let them cool for a minute before cutting.
Not an expert or well versed but I seem to remember that 10/1 water/bleach works as well. Or did I read some misinformation?
I hesitate to say that a 10+% bleach works too because heat is so inexpensive, easy, and assured. I have Virkon S tablets that I have used twice and decided I simply preferred not to use chemicals if I could since I already use so many in the tissue culture process anyway.
