In the lush fields of California's cannabis farms, a formidable adversary lurks—the Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd). This insidious pathogen silently infiltrates cannabis crops, leaving destruction in its wake and posing a significant threat to the entire cannabis industry. With over 90% of farms already infected, the need for a comprehensive solution has reached a critical juncture.
Amidst the uncertainty, a ray of hope emerges—the power of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) with Biodox, the Chlorine Dioxide-powered solution offered by Biocentric Solutions.
HLVd casts a dark shadow on cannabis cultivation, shrinking yields and devastating the precious THC content—the very essence of today's cannabis market. The potential losses in the national cannabis economy loom large, making HLVd a menace that demands urgent attention.
The enigmatic "dudding" effect of flowers that never mature and gain weight left growers feeling powerless, and the invisible pathogen spread undetected, plaguing the industry. Biocentric Solutions began testing Biodox against HLV with great results.
However, due to HLVd's life-cycle and manner in which it infects, sometimes passing completely undetected until the entire plantation has been infested before its detrimental effects become visible, calls for an integral approach, not just last-minute emergency remedies. Last-minute treatments late in flowering have shown success with Biodox, but the ideal is always prevention.
IPM embodies a holistic strategy, minimizing reliance on harmful chemicals and taking a cue from nature to preserve the environment and keep people safe. At the heart of this approach lies Biodox, the aqueous Chlorine Dioxide-based product that aligns perfectly with Biocentric Solutions' ethos of "solving problems, not symptoms." Biodox leaves no harmful residues or environmental threats, making it the ideal recurrent ally in the cannabis industry's battle against HLVd.
Chlorine Dioxide's prowess as a biocide has been proven time and again, showcasing its high efficacy against various pathogens, particularly viruses [1,2,3,4,5]. Currently, there are no ASTM standards for efficacy testing against Hop Laden Viroid. This limits the ability for a conclusive and peer-reviewed efficacy test of chlorine dioxide against HLVd. For now, anecdotal evidence observed on cannabis farms with plants that exhibited symptoms and tested positive for HLVd will have to suffice. Current testing procedures for HLVd assign a number of one through five based on the number of colony forming units (CFU) with five being the highest and zero being undetectable.
In this study, a farm was identified with a greenhouse that appeared to be symptomatic while in week four of flowering. The test results revealed an infection [see lab test and pictures attached] We began a root drench and foliar spray protocol. Within two weeks it was observed that the flowers gained weight again and the visual symptoms of HLVd subsided. The greenhouse was tested again and the tests revealed a lower infection level, but more importantly the flowers put on weight .
The plants were harvested two weeks later and were shown to have a similar weight to comparable plants without infection. The observational conclusion is that plants with HLVd can still be productive and yield high quality and quantity of flowers.
This conclusion was tested again at the same farm with a greenhouse of plants that were still in the vegetative stage but began to show signs of HLVd. After testing positive for HLVd, we began the same treatment protocol. This time however the plants never appeared to be symptomatic in the flowering stage. When harvested, the weight of the crop yielded slightly higher averages than usual. These anecdotal studies suggest to us that crops that have HLVd can be grown successfully if the colony forming units can be kept at low levels.
Integrated Pest Management with Biodox has shown promising anecdotal results as an effective tool to control HLVd in the cannabis industry. For the industry to be successful against this barrage of new pathogens, an approach that integrates soil and plant-based applications timed to the pathogen’s different stages of development, must be adopted. In other words, Integrated Pest Management must follow the pathogen's growth stages and reduce the number of colony-forming units before symptoms are visible.
May 27th, 2022, HLVd Infected Plants
June 15th, 2022, The same Infected plants gaining weight in the flowers despite having HLVd .
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