I had posted some info and pictures on a thread that got closed. @LemonadeJoe asked me to make a new thread so the info doesn’t get buried.
HLVD is bad news, its pretty well known to be spread through clones but its also passed through seeds, albiet with greatly reduced transmission rates than seeds i believe.
So just always be on the look out.
If you take get clones online always get them from someone who tests. It may cost a little more but it could save your garden.
HLVD INFO
Here are some symptoms to look for
- Lateral branching
- Brittle stems
- Witches broom
- Overlapping leaves
- Dudding
Lateral branching- branches start shooting out instead of up or up and out.
Brittle Stems- stems and branches are super easy to break. Just brushing up again a branch can break it.
Witches Broom- the nodes start stacking so close they look like a witches broom
Overlapping leaves- leaf fingers will sometimes overlap each other
Dudding- when your plants in flower lack crystal,terp production and density due to HLVD
Just having one or more of these symptoms may not mean you have hlvd. If you have most i would suggest getting it tested.
A major one is dudding, theres no mistaking a plant going from top quality to trash bin quality. If it duds it most definitely has hlvd.
It is very hard to eradicate because you can test one branch on a plant and it says negative. While getting a positive result from a different branch from the same plant.
Getting root tests are a must as they are much more reliable than testing branches.
Branches are only like 30-60% accurate and i believe root samples are 100% accurate according to tumi genomics.
Here are a few examples of plants before HLVD and after getting HLVD
Before
After
Before
After
Marshmallow og before hlv
Marshmallow og after hlv (dudded)
Pre 64 Runtz before hlv
Pre 64 Runtz after hlv(dudded)
And some background on how i came upon this knowledge. I brought in some clones around three years ago. First run with them they looked really nice. One plant(gushmints) didnt get as big as i had expected by the way people talked about it. But other than that everything looked on point.
It wasn’t until i started to flower them a second time that i noticed some growing rather wierd. So i did some searching and came to the conclusion it could be hlvd.
I ordered tests from tumi genomics and sure enough the new cuts i brought in were positive.
Some of the plants showed severe very visible sign of dudding while others didn’t show any.
Apple fritter(lumpy’s cut) showed zero signs of having it even though it tests positive, it still produced really nice flower.
Pre 64 runtz and marshmallow og on the other hand went from qaulity flower to pretty much hay.
Gg4 was kind of in the middle, it showed but not nearly as bad as mmog and runtz.
Its seemed to me that about 30% of my flower tent dudded.
I ended up scraping all the cuts i brought in, plus i got rid of all my keepers i had accumulated over 5-10 years. I had some serious bangers, searched hundreds of seeds to find. Thousands of dollars.
Had to toss out my soil(had been using for 3 years) and containers.
Then i cleaned tents and everything else with bleach.
It was a real bummer.
The worst part is i had vended some to others. I felt horrible about it. So i got in touch with everyone to let them know. And told them onnce i got new stuff tested i would make it right.
I got new stuff in and had it tested.
I only get cuts from people that test. With new cuts they are quarantined until i get negative test results.
So always be on the look out. And test anything you suspect. And only bring in clones from people who have tested there mothers with a reputable company.
If anyone has any questions or comments feel free…
Hopefully this will help some fellow growers when trying to determine if they have hlvd or what to be on the look out for.
Happy Growing!!
at one point it had me wondering if OGKB-leaners were possibly infected but they definitely aren’t affected by dudding 
