Fungal disease taking a toll on Louisiana's fledgling hemp industry
By Timothy Boone, The Advocate
Louisiana’s fledgling industrial hemp crop is being hard hit by a fungal disease that can kill up to 20% of the plants it infects.
“To this point, it’s our number one problem,” said David Tate, a consultant for Virgin Hemp Farms. “It’s killing us.”
The state handed out the first permits to grow hemp earlier this year and there are more than 100 licensed producers, covering about 2,500 acres, said officials with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
Hemp is the nonpsychoactive cousin of marijuana, and is being grown for a variety of uses, including cannabidiol, or CBD, which proponents say has health benefits and is sold in a wide range of products including tinctures, lip balm and lotion. Another main use is as a fiber, which is then used to make clothes or rope out of hemp.
Virgin Hemp is growing 60 acres of hemp on 12 farms across Acadiana and central Louisiana. Between southern blight, which is the fungal disease, and root rot, a water mold, Tate said there’s been a 30% to 50% loss of the initial plants.
Southern blight is caused by a soil-borne fungus, said Raj Singh, a plant doctor at the LSU Agricultural Center. Singh said the fungus is known to cause disease on more than 500 plant species, including tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants.
“There is nothing special about industrial hemp; it’s just susceptible to this disease,” he said. So far, the disease has been confirmed at three hemp farms. On one farm, Singh said it's causing a 15% to 20% plant loss.
The disease thrives in hot and humid weather, so Louisiana summers are perfect conditions for the fungus. There were periods in the spring and summer when there were heavy rains and a lot of cloud cover, which Tate said were perfect conditions for southern blight.