Plant-parasite dodder: fighting measures

Dodder - plant-parasite is probably familiar to every person; Being a dangerous lianate weed wrapping around cultivated plants, it does not allow the latter to develop normally, sucking up their vitality together with nutrients.

Description of dodder

A native of Africa and tropical America, the parasitic dodder plant has spread widely around the world; Easily adapting to new conditions for themselves and new plants, it parasitizes them mercilessly.

Characterized by high fecundity and great vitality, the dodder is of thin-and thick-stalked form, and is found in nature in more than 100 varieties.

The most harmful is the plant-parasite dodder field, clover, hop, flaxseed. Deprived of leaves and roots, it has a body of different shades (from yellowish to reddish). It feeds on a curly parasite due to the forces of the host plant, to which it is attached by means of peculiar suckers (haustoriae). The formation of such suckers, which penetrate deeply into the plant tissue and suck nutrients out of it, occurs in places of contact with the "future victim". The plant, which became a hostage to dodder, is weakened, delayed in growth and development due to the nutrient exhaustion of the weed.

Danger of dodges for cultivated plants

The growth of the dodder occurs at a rapid pace, the weed covers whole massifs of cultivated plants, causing a decrease in the quality of the produce, deterioration of winter hardiness and even loss of the future crop.

The dodder is not capricious about the choice of a "future victim" and may settle near any garden and garden crops; Do not disdain this weed even with flowers. Beveled on hay grass, affected dodder, dry dry, lose nutrition, can cause disease of the animal, in some cases - its death.

After the plant-parasite dodder adheres to a suitable plant, its connection with the soil is broken, and the weed is on full security in the chosen natural object. One weedy specimen is capable of forming a lesion of up to 6 square meters in diameter. Meters. The vegetative body of the dodder is characterized by high internal pressure, which allows the fragments of the plant not to fade for a long time. The dodder basically develops in the upper and middle parts of plants, enveloping them with filiform, branching, pale yellow stems.

The stem of the dodder is covered with a large number of small flowers collected in globular, glomerose or spicate inflorescences. The fruit is a capsule with 2 or 4 seeds. And the latter are so similar to the seeds of cultivated plants that they are often mistaken for such. In particular, the seeds of dodder are similar to clover seeds, only when examined carefully can they be distinguished. Masking the dodder seeds under the seed of cultivated plants is the result of parasitic adaptation, which complicates the use of conventional methods of separating seeds from each other. Seeds of dodder, characterized by a cellular surface, are mixed with a magnetic powder and separated from the seeds of cultivated plants with the help of electromagnets. On their smooth surface, the powder is not retained.

Spread of dodder

Distribution of dodder often occurs with seeds of poorly purified crops. Also its carriers are animals, wind, cars, water; If the livestock is fed with dwarf plants, then the latter falls on fields with the manure of these animals. Dodder can also spread with packaging or planting material. The source of infection can be weeds and wild species of plants infected with this parasite. Germination of dodder seeds takes place on the 5th-15th day after sowing, and at first time exists at the expense of own forces. If the dodder does not meet a suitable "breadwinner", she dies.

Dodder - plant-parasite: fighting measures

Get rid of dodder is very difficult, because the action of chemical drugs does not do her any harm. Destroy this weed only with the plant itself. Effective preventive measures are aimed at preventing the appearance of such a malicious natural parasite on the site.

Planting of cultivated plants is required to produce seeds free from dodder and clean areas. It is necessary to carry out approbation of crops in order to determine the degree of their purity, phytopathological examination and quarantine measures. For sowing plants, you need to choose clean areas. On the territories of irrigated agriculture the germination of weed seeds is stimulated by provocative spring and autumn watering. When the dodder appears in crops of perennial grasses, the last before the beginning of flowering and seeding of dodder is required to be mowed. Especially effective is a timely slope against the dodder of the field, 95% of the stems are located at a close distance from the soil surface, which allows for a low cut, it is easy to remove them from the field along with hay. Effective deep digging of soil, 25-30 cm.

It is very important not to allow the emergence of dangerous weeds at the site, among which there is a plant-parasite dodder. And the fight against them with the use of preventive preventive measures will be minimized.