What is dangerous dodder and how to get rid of it?

Dodder is a parasitic plant. Living at the expense of the plant - the "owner", it sucks the vital juices out of it, slows down its growth and does not allow it to develop normally. In perennial plants, winter hardiness decreases, this can lead to their death. What can we say about productivity. In some cultures, its losses reach up to 95%. It is no coincidence that all types of dodder in RUSSIA are classified as quarantine weeds.
Today, 165 countries in the world suffer from field dodder alone. In total, the weed has over 270 species, only in Russia there are about 40 of them. This native of the tropical forests of Africa and America is extremely tenacious and prolific.
He, like a mythical hydra, can recover from a small part of himself left on the host plant. And if we consider that one unit of this weed produces up to 100 thousand seeds, then the threat is quite obvious.
Dodder is dangerous not only to flora, but also to fauna, as it contains poisonous alkaloids. They cause serious poisoning in animals that have eaten dry weed along with hay.
In addition, dodder is a carrier of many viral diseases. Meadow grasses that are not cleaned of weeds become moldy and do not dry well.
Dodder belongs to annual herbaceous climbing plants from the group of obligate parasites. Its long, lace-like, yellow or reddish stem is attached to the plant with the help of suckers (haustoria) and parasitizes on it. Depending on the thickness of this stem, the dodder is divided into two groups: thin-stemmed (width 0.2-1 mm) and thick-stemmed (2-4 mm). The former parasitize on herbaceous plants from the dicotyledonous class, the latter on shrubs and trees.
Dodder is attached to vegetables, berries and flowers. In the garden , potatoes , beets , carrots , legumes suffer from it, in the garden - raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, etc.
Dodder blooms in July-August. Its very small white, pink or light green flowers cover the entire stem, so there are a lot of seeds in the weed. In addition, dodder is able to disguise them as seeds of plants on which it parasitizes. So, sowing crops in the spring, you can get an unpleasant surprise.
Dodder seeds have a high germination rate. Unripe ones germinate faster than ripe ones. For life, they need to find a host plant, in search of which the germinated seeds of the parasite can cover a distance of up to 30 cm.
Dodder is a very dangerous and difficult to eradicate weed. It harms not only garden plants, but also meadow and even trees and shrubs.
Defeating dodder is extremely difficult. In the fight against dodder, it is necessary not to let its seeds ripen. The absence of roots in a weed is its main weakness. Therefore, in order to use it, it is extremely important to have time to notice the “enemy” in time. As soon as it germinates, it must be removed immediately. If the weed has already developed sufficiently, then you need to tear out the affected crop and burn it. In addition to manual destruction and crop rotation, in particularly difficult cases, herbicides are used in the fight against dodder.

The material was prepared by specialists of the Volgograd branch of the Rostov Reference Center of ROSSELKHOZNADZOR.