If I can open a can of worms…. Hop Latent Viroid has been the buzz on the street the last couple weeks. I’ve heard numbers like if you have a clone, there’s a 30-90% chance you have it in your garden already. I’m also hearing there’s a 10 percent chance it’s passed down in seeds.
I bring this up because apparently it can pass between plants so easily as them rubbing together or using the same scissors to trim. Well, Bodhi mentions his Cali-O “dudded” out back in his potcast… Sounds like this is going to be one hell of a stir up in the industry.
“But Drew, these seeds grow fine!!” Sure, but when a hop crop tests positive for HLV, they burn it all down. Maybe not big implications for those of us growing our own medicine, but wild to think about nonetheless. Testing and fixing the viroid with tissue culture is definitely cost prohibitive and it’s been around since at least 2014 and GG4…
Anyways… definitely looking at my plants funny now, but I’m not so sure my seed stock is much better save for landraces and antiquities. Food for thought.
the feeding from 10 days ago
