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More than 90% of California’s pot farms are infected with a crop-destroy disease
An estimated 90% of California’s cannabis farms are infected with a “severe” pathogen that can destroy the value of pot plants, leaving cannabis farmers with a worthless harvest. But a recent scientific breakthrough is offering a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered farmers.
Scientists have discovered a type of purple-colored cannabis that appears to fight the widespread plant disease, which is called hop-latent viroid, or HLVd. HLVd damages cannabis plants and significantly reduces their value by decreasing the amount of active compounds, like THC, they produce.
But two weeks ago, a group of scientists at Medicinal Genomics, a Massachusetts-based company, announced they had accidentally discovered that one of their cannabis plants appears to be partially resistant to HLVd. The scientists also noticed that the plant turned purple as it was fighting the disease.
Cannabis plants can occasionally turn from green to other colors, like red, blue or purple, because of genetic or environmental factors. Purple plants have long been valued in the cannabis community, with prized strains like Granddaddy Purple, Mendocino Purps and Purple Haze.
Kevin McKernan, the chief science officer for Medicinal Genomics, announced his company’s findings earlier this month at a conference in Florida. McKernan said the plant was significantly more purple than a second plant that had the same genetics but was not exposed to the viroid. [Read More @ SF Gate]
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