not to put too fine a point on it, but there is good reason to be cautious with the worcestire kashmir seeds, and that former member.
worcestire was banned for scamming users for cash and running multiple sock puppet accounts to support his scam. this is a fact.
this is something that worcestire proved to us all despite a lot of good will from the mods and the community.
in worcestires grow the variegation did spread from plant to plant- it spread from an unhealthy stardawg clone that was showing slight variegation and an extreme pythiosis infection causing stem rot, necrosis, stem girdling, and possible root rot.
the extreme pythiosis infections was confirmed by worcestire and could be confirmed visually. if that variegated stardawg clone came from a poorly managed grow with such an obvious pythiosis infection, it may have been carying more than just pythiosis.
There is no observable variegation in the kashmir stock from bodhi, barefrog, or in stock made by others who worked with those seeds like kind024’s generic seeds.
as far as I have seen the variegation is only present in worcestires stock, and it showed up after it had been in contact with this infected stardawg cutting. I think there is reason to be cautious, but the main concern is the confirmed pythiosis rot.
as for the possibility of hlvd, I would be interested to see those seeds tested for hlvd (dudding virus). I’m glad to see grow reports with good results but keep in mind it is called “latent” viroid for a reason- infected plants do not always present symptoms. there are a number of other pathogens which can spread variegation in cannabis/hemp, and spread by contact and seed. like the possibility of hemp mosaic virus, sunn hemp mosaic virus, and other agricultural mosaic, spotting, and streaking viruses which can spread into hemp. as far as I know, none of these have consumer available testing and the primary symptom is retarded photosynthesis which is less obvious than flower dudding.
the confirmed pythiosis infection in the grow during the kashmir breeding can transmit through seeds, spreading the damping off pathogen to other gardens.
We know he was scamming people here, we know there was pythiosis infected stardawg clones in the grow. He had an ulterior motive to profit off of these seeds regardless of how they turned out. I wouldn’t put my trust in that work or risk my garden over it.
I feel personally obligated to warn others after blindly sharing these seeds with a local grower and spreading pythiosis rot into his med garden.
I’m glad that people have had good results with that stock, but there is risk with these seeds and it is an unnecessary risk given the availability of the kashmir strain from known clean (and honest) sources.