Across the United States, growers of marijuana are experiencing a widespread disease affecting their plants. The disease is hop latent viroid (HpLVd). It made its way across the United States after coming out of California. The point of the plants crossing state lines was to promote the legal markets, but, unfortunately, the contaminated plants have infected other crops. In 2019, the disease was first made public, but many believe it’s been infecting plants since at least 2014. As far back as 2014, there have been reports of dubbing, which is stunted growth and a lack of both trichomes and secondary metabolites. All of this makes the plant less effective when smoked or ingested. What’s more, is that testing for HpLVd is practically non-existent when it comes to cannabis plants.
