The plant disease Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd) has made its way from the West Coast to the Northeast, and Massachusetts growers are struggling to contain the disease, Fox25 Boston reported Thursday.
“Hop Latent Viroid has been an issue in many different cannabis cultivation facilities,” Dr. Riley Kirk, a cannabis research scientist at Real Isolates in Beverly, Massachusetts, told Fox25. The disease can stunt the plant’s growth and alter the plant’s genetic makeup, she explained. The condition also affects cannabinoid and terpene production, affecting the marijuana’s potency and flavor, according to the cannabis news site StratCann.
The plant disease had apparently made its way to Massachusetts by early December, according to a Dec. 3 tweet from Boston Globe reporter Dan Adams.
🚨🚨NEW: Meet the hop latent viroid, an insidious plant disease that has quietly wreaked havoc on West Coast cannabis crops and is now eating into Massachusetts harvests, too. Growers say it represents a serious threat to the marijuana sector. #mapoli https://t.co/R0OfF7TMje
— Dan Adams (@Dan_Adams86) December 3, 2022
Marijuana plant managers reportedly struggle to identify the disease before it’s too late, according to Fox25. Researchers plan to use molecular tests to help identify the virus early on, Kirk told the outlet. (RELATED: ‘Nobody Works. Nobody Gives A Damn’: Corporation Co-Founder Says Socialism Killed Americans’ Work Ethic)
HLVd reportedly first cropped up in marijuana plants in California in 2017 before moving to British Columbia, StartCann reported in January. By the winter of 2021-2022, the disease affected some 40% of Canadian cannabis growers, according to the outlet.