SC Labs announced on May 10th that its labs are now capable of testing for the highly infectious hop latent viroid, known as “dudding disease.”
The viroid, which stunts the growth of cannabis plants and reduces the potency by as much as 40%, is almost impossible to detect based on symptoms alone. According to the company it is estimated that the common practice of shipping cloned plants across the country has led up to half of all plants in the US to be infected.
Unlike other pathogens, like fungi, yeast and bacteria, there are few visible symptoms of a hop latent infection until plants are in flower. SC Labs has developed procedures to test for and detect …