I knew the virus was out there but didn’t know it has gotten this bad…
https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/cannabis-farms-infectious-pathogen-18115205.php
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I will check that out, whatever is in the west will surely come east! 
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It’s everywhere, I first encountered hlvd in 2017. Test your plants anytime you bring in a new cut and its even in seeds now.
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HLVD testing service is available to consumers from Tumi Genomics
Here’s their info page about hlvd
https://tumigenomics.com/hlvd-distribution
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Brutal that this is in seeds
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I wonder, if this can affect seeds also, how safe is it To be buying seeds from California? I mean they estimate that 90% of farms are infected.
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Keep in mind they have no statistic for private gardens, this is referring to commercial production farms.
I agree it is a concern. Clones are the biggest vector of transmission. I advise caution with seed and clone trading.
Get cuts from nurseries that test all cuttings, or if you receive a cutting from another grower, operate a strict quarantine and get testing.
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Saw that article this am, if accurate its much bigger a problem out west than I had imagined.
I’m not even educated on the/any symptoms of the virus or what to look for. Imagine testing is going to become more popular among the hobbyist homegrown. I’m certainly gonna think twice about anything I bring in.
Might be wise to think about protecting your stock.
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I was under the impression from what I’ve read that hlvd cannot be transmitted via seeds?
I’m I wrong
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As far as I know this has not yet been studied. There is a rumor that there is a %10 chance of transmission from an infected mother plant through seed.
I expect this is innacurate, and that transmission rates could be much higher.
on overgrow a few years ago,
you could observe the spread of a viroid from an infected stardawg cutting in someone’s grow, to females of another line they used for seed making. The seeds were distributed and telltale variegation and stunting was present in many of the offspring that were grown and documented by people who received the seeds.
Fortunately I haven’t seen any clearly visible symptoms since in the gardens where those seeds were grown, so I hope any further spread was very limited.
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I’m hoping that labs will start offering hlvd testing for seeds or seedlings. it would be very cool if they could develop a process to test seeds to confirm stock is safe before germination.
It would be worth giving up a few seeds for testing to know the stock is safe.
edit- it actually seems that tumi genomics offers this service as a special order of some kind. here’s the quote from their website:
If you are testing seeds, then please indicate it in the “Order special instructions” below. Note, seed testing requires additional processing and will take longer than 48 hours.**
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Here in the Bay Area it’s a big enough deal that it made it onto the local morning news today. The implication was it’s exclusively indoor grows, but that may have been because the copy was so poorly written.
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I have spoken to myfloradna about it being present in seeds. His response was they can be infected. He basically said Spain bought a lot of seed out of Cali and it was now popping up over there.
Really nasty viroid. Definitely on the east coast for a while now
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Anyone have a good link on this virus that can be understood by a novice? I’m needing to read up on quarantine, testing and an understanding of how it spreads.
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Great information and discussion y’all!
I’m trying to learn as much as I can on this topic so I’ll know what to look for in seeds I pop that I’ve bought the past few years.
Crazy how bad it is now. A huge reason I haven’t bought, traded, or taken in cuts in many years. I’d much rather be quarantining something while looking for PM, mites, thrips, etc. vs the viroid.
Hope no one on here is dealing with it currently, or if they are that maybe it’s at the point to being on the way to eliminating it from their garden.
Best of luck to all, and Peace!
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I just got on to post this same article. 90 percent of commercial farms is wild, especially in an already collapsing/ unstable market, where tax infrastructure is already putting dispensaries out of business.
Seems like a boom opportunity for grey/black market cultivators, but it’s gonna fuck up the state canna economy for a while I imagine.
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The most important thing to know is that this viroid is not clearly observable, so even plants that look fine could be infected. The only way to know is to perform testing.
the tumi genomics link I posted has a section on best practices for prevention of spread.
that should be a pretty effective guide for the basic requirements of an effective quarantine.
Isolate the plants physically with a separate grow space. Tend to your clean garden before tending plants in quarantine. Sanitize all garden tools with bleach as described. Do not allow runoff water to come into contact with any other plants. Do not reuse soil from an infected plant. Do not allow any plant matter to come into contact with your clean garden.
The viroid is transmissible as long as its physical structure is intact, so even dried plant matter could still spread the viroid. I’m told this includes dried and cured flower. So I would be really careful with any dispensary flower you might be smoking around your garden.
Spread is possible through handling, all it takes is a tiny bit of leaf or stem damage that releases a tiny bit of sap. so tend to your quarantine plants last and wear gloves, or do not handle.
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Damn nasty stuff.
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Well damn, I just tried to order tests from Tumi. When You go to check out, a popup says you have to order 10 tests minumum. That’s a $250 minimum order. This isn’t mentioned anywhere on the website until you try to pay.
I don’t have that many plants to test, and it’s well over my budget.
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One test per plant?
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