Considera

Hi,

I am searching for a homeopathic remedy for hop stunt viroid. The disease is very serious one, the infected plant starts to become weak in 1 year after the infection and dies 3 to 5 years after the infection. There is no cure for it and the disease spreads rapidly.

Injuries: hop has injuries on the leaves, flowers, stem and roots - it can be seen 1 - 2 years after the first infection which spreads with the juice of an infected plant.

We see the first marked signs of disease In the plantations in the beginning of June. The infected plants seem to be normal at first, but in the beginning of June we can notice their lagging behind in growth.
Exceptions are plants that have been infected for a long time and plants that are grown from infected seedlings. In this case, we notice a lag and a weaker growth in early stages of development, as the plants are already severely weakened due to the infection. With the continuation of vegetation, the appearance of the signs of disease increases, with the pronounced shrinkage and clarity of the intermediate joints of the main vines and lateral shoots.
As vines grow worse on the vines, the diseased plants are unwound from the support and difficult to climb up.
The infected plants mostly do not reach the height of the hops, and for some varieties they also flourish up to 10 days before the uninfected plants.
Leaves remain smaller and slightly bubbling, with some varieties also yellowing and turning the edges down.
The cones are significantly smaller and lighter, with less number of developed lupulin glands, in the case of highly affected plants, also improperly developed.
Characteristic is also the intensification of cracking of primary vines, which can be more pronounced in certain varieties.
The disease also strongly affects the roots on which a dry black leg develops, leading to the complete death of the entire root system.

My first thought was Silicea. Does anyone have any info about vioroids and homeopathy? Any info would be highly appreciated.

Warm regards,
Bojca Januš

Hi

A few early questions:

• Is this problem widespread in the area where you are growing the hops?
  Where are you in the world?
  What's the soil like?
  How are you managing the crop: chemicals, organic, biodynamic ...???
  Are there other major issues in the area?
  Is this the first season that this has occurred or is it a problem that is worsening over time?
  Has anything changed since the time that you had healthy vines?
  What have you tried so far?
  What are other people with the same issue doing?

Mark

Hi, Mark,

thank you for your questions.

I am not the a hop grower, I am a plant homeopathy researcher and I am also marketing homeopathy for plants, I write articles and teach people about it. I have been asked what to do by one of hop growers who also works in Chamber of Agriculture. She asked me for help, because the problem is out of hand - there is no cure for that viroid.

Is this problem widespread in the area where you are growing the hops? Yes, and it is spreading rapidly ever since 2007.

Where are you in the world? I live in Slovenia, my country is in EU, next to Austria, Italy, Croatia and Hungary, under the Alps and at the top of the Adriatic Sea.

What's the soil like? Hop mainly grows in central, continental part of Slovenia - the soil is based on carbonate gravel, brought by rivers.

How are you managing the crop: chemicals, organic, biodynamic ...??? Hop is grown conventionally with chemical pesticides (all, except herbicides).
The spaces between rows are cleared mechanically, they use artificial fertilizers and also cow manure, and also some chicken manure from chicken fed with GMO corn and soya.

Are there other major issues in the area? Probably, I suppose there should be - because of chemicals used while growing hop ... but I don`t have any data about that.

Is this the first season that this has occurred or is it a problem that is worsening over time? No, it is not the first season, it started in 2007. Before that teh viroid was attacking citruses, and then the viroid was imported somehow to Slovenia, and somehow started to attack hop - when the viroid attacks citruses teh consequences are not so devastating.

Has anything changed since the time that you had healthy vines? I don`t know.

What have you tried so far? They (the growers and the agriculture consultants) are trying to find a solution - so they also asked me if there would be a homeopathic solution. If nothing is found, they intend to destroy the plantations totally ... and start all over with sterilised plants. I am sure there must be a better solution than that.

What are other people with the same issue doing? For now, as much as I know - the only measures are to destroy all of the affected plants and also those that grow near them. In spite of that the disease is spreading rapidly.

.......

I have come to some ideas what to do (and would like to consult these with you): I think Silicea would be the right remedy, and also adding inoculated biochar to plants could help enhancing the immune siystem of the plants; a colleague suggested adding Carbo veg. to biochar and also using Natrium sulph. a week apart from Silicea.

Any suggestions or ideas are very welcome!

Warm regards,
Bojca