Purity Medical Laboratories (PML) has started offering hop latent viroid (HpLVd) testing for cultivators operating in the Golden State.
Also known as dudding disease, HpLVd is a plant pathogen that can potentially destroy cannabis crops, therefore leading to a so-called “dud harvest.”
The cannabis testing lab says the pathogen can often be initially asymptomatic in crops and hard to detect, eventually causing stunted growth, reduced flower yields, fragile stems and lower trichome counts.
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PML also says early testing and detection of HpLVd helps growers to protect their crops and eradicating the dudding disease when it’s in its early stages is a wise course of action. An outbreak of the disease can potentially ruin an entire harvest and if even one plant is infected it needs to be removed and eliminated.
Plants in the surrounding area of an infected plant need to be quarantined and tested multiple times to prevent the spread and tools or equipment involved in testing plants need to be thoroughly cleaned regularly.
Cannabis industry analysts have estimated that HpLVd impacts over 30 per cent of all cannabis plants, which can potentially lead to millions of dollars in losses for cultivators in the United States, according to PML.
In addition to HpLVd, the California lab also provides testing for potency, water activity and moisture content, terpenes, nutrients, pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, microbials and residual solvents.
PML has created a short YouTube video showcasing its laboratory. The organization says its members have 40 years of combined experience in analytical chemistry along with plant breeding, biochemistry and molecular genetics expertise.
