That strange mass of stringy yellow stuff growing across the ground and up onto your trees?
Its not something from a 1950s horror movie, but it is a parasite that can damage your landscaping.
It is dodder — not a common sight, but, like mistletoe, it does pop up from time to time in desert landscapes.
Unlike mistletoe, however, which sprouts from seeds deposited on branches by birds, dodder grows from the ground up — into the host plant.
Dodder is best described as thin yellow or golden yellow threads that grow over the ground and into the canopy of its host plant. Over time, it forms a thick mat of yellow strings twining in and over the leaves, stems and branches of its host plant.
The delicate white blooms of baby’s breath are a favorite for floral arrangements. But this wispy plant can fall victim to dodder, a parasitic vine that can choke out and kill its host. Getting rid of dodder on baby’s breath takes some persistence. But with the right techniques you can protect your plant.
What is Dodder?
Dodder goes by many names like strangleweed, angel hair, and devil’s guts. It’s a parasitic flowering vine with thin yellow, orange, or brown stems that twist around host plants. Dodder has no leaves and no true roots. It sinks sucker-like growths into its host to extract water and nutrients. This weakens and damages the host plant.
Dodder spreads rapidly, creating dense mats that can cover shrubs and other plants. The dodder seeds are dispersed by birds, wind, water, and contaminated soil. Once dodder emerges, it must find a host within a few days or it will die.
Why Dodder Targets Baby’s Breath
Dodder is an opportunistic parasite that infests over 100 species of plants including
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Ornamentals like baby’s breath, roses, lilies
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Fruits and vegetables like melons, tomatoes, asparagus
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Field crops like alfalfa and safflower
The vining stems are attracted to baby’s breath’s slender, upright form. Dodder twines up the delicate stalks and eventually covers the feathery white blooms. Unchecked, it can kill the plant. Even small amounts of dodder can weaken baby’s breath over time.
Signs of Dodder Infestation
Dodder is easy to spot on most plants due to its distinctive tangled masses of yellow, orange, or brown stems. Look for these signs that dodder has attached itself to your baby’s breath:
- Thread-like vine stems wrapping around stalks or stems
- Decline in plant health and vigor
- Reduced flowering
- Stunted growth
- Thinning or dying stems
- Presence of dodder flowers and seeds
Catching dodder early gives you the best chance of saving your plant.
How to Remove Dodder from Baby’s Breath
It takes diligence to get rid of dodder. Combining methods works best for complete removal.
Manual Removal
For light infestations, carefully unwind and pick off dodder by hand. Wear gloves to protect your skin. Inspect the entire plant and remove every trace of dodder so it can’t reinfest or spread. Prune back any damaged stems on the baby’s breath.
Regular checks are needed to pick off any new growth. Discard pulled dodder in sealed bags so seeds don’t spread.
Herbicides
If manual removal fails, chemical control may be needed. Look for dodder-specific herbicides and read labels to check if they’re approved for ornamentals. Pre-emergent herbicides applied early in the season can stop dodder seedlings from establishing.
Once dodder is attached to a host, post-emergent herbicides that contain imazapic, glyphosate, or rimsulfuron work best. Spray dodder leaves while avoiding the baby’s breath foliage. It may take repeat applications.
Biological Control
Beneficial nematodes attack and parasitize young dodder seedlings and offer organic control. Introducing predatory insects like certain mites or beetles can provide some suppression of dodder.
Remove Host Plants
If dodder persists, the nuclear option is removing infested baby’s breath entirely. The ground can then be treated with boiling water to kill seeds. Replace with dodder-resistant plants like herbs and grasses temporarily.
Preventing Dodder Infestations
Prevention is key to avoid dodder attacking your baby’s breath again:
- Inspect new plants and cuttings for hitchhiking dodder
- Control weeds that host dodder, like bindweed and wild mustard
- Use row covers to make a physical barrier
- Rotate baby’s breath plantings to new beds annually
- Clean tools and shoes to avoid spreading seeds
- Apply mulch to suppress seed growth
- Scout plants routinely and remove dodder immediately
Dodder Must Die
This parasitic vine can quickly overwhelm and destroy baby’s breath. Careful inspection, consistent removal of all traces, and smart prevention are vital. At the first sign of dodder rearing its ugly stems, take action. With persistence, you can protect your baby’s breath and keep it blooming beautifully dodder-free.
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Dodder is actually an annual plant that sprouts from seed in the ground during our summer monsoon season.
It has only a few days to find a host plant because it has no roots of its own and must live only on the food reserves of the seed.
Unless a host is found quickly, it will die.
If a host is found in time, the dodder grows into it, anchoring itself in place with haustoria — growth pegs that penetrate the stems to draw out water minerals and carbohydrates from the host.
Dodders connection with the ground then is severed, and it continues growing by means of aerial stems, forming more and more haustoria to draw ever-increasing levels of nutrients from its host.
Dodder doesnt usually kill established trees and shrubs, but it does weaken them and stunt their growth — sometimes severely.
A problem of greater significance is the seed produced by dodder. It is spread by wind and water and establishes itself in surrounding areas of the garden and landscape.
You cant eradicate dodder in a host plant because pulling the threadlike vines out of the plant doesnt get rid of the haustoria embedded in the bark.
Even if all the vines were removed, the dodder would regenerate. But hand-removal of the vines does help to greatly reduce the amount of seed produced, thereby reducing its spread.
The most effective means of control is to remove the infested plants and make sure that newly sprouting dodder seedlings are pulled out before they find another host plant.
If pulling or hoeing dodder seedlings is not practical, spray them with household vinegar.
If dodder becomes persistent, the affected area can be treated with a pre-emergent herbicide containing trifluralin. Read the instructions carefully.
Apply it in late June, just prior to the monsoon, and again in late November, ahead of winter rains.
While were on the subject of parasitic plants, lets talk about controlling desert mistletoe.
Like dodder, mistletoe cannot be eradicated in infested trees. It can, however, be managed by keeping the vegetative (visible) portion of the mistletoe cut.
That will minimize stress and strain on the host tree.
By cutting out, I mean cutting the mistletoe at its base where it emerges from the branch.
Do not gouge into the branch — it would cause further injury to the tree. And do not remove branches infested with mistletoe. The rooting portion of the parasite grows throughout the tree, so removing an individual branch or limb wont help.
Finally, dont wrap branches with plastic — black or clear — after cutting mistletoe off. Plastic doesnt prevent mistletoe regrowth, but the heat that builds up under the plastic does harm the branch.
A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star
» Demo topic
“Growing Vegetables from Seeds and Transplants” will be the topic of this weeks gardening demonstrations. Presentations are slated at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Wilmot Library, 530 N. Wilmot Road, and at 1 p.m. Friday at Oro Valley Public Library, 1305 W. Naranja Drive. ● John P. Begeman is the urban horticulture agent for the University of Arizona-Pima County Cooperative Extension. If you have questions, call 626-5161 to reach a master gardener.
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How We Are Dealing With the Invasive Weed Dodder | Gardening with Creekside
FAQ
How to get rid of dodder on plants?
What herbicide kills dodder?
Is dodder plant harmful?
What does dodder do to plants?
How to control dodder weed?
Pruning is useful if you want to control the Dodder weed in the early stages. Once there’s a sign keep a close watch on the Dodder-prone area. If you see Dodder attached to host plants, prune the host plant too. You may need to prune 1/4th of an inch below the attached point. This is to be done to avoid the regeneration of this parasitic plant.
How to get rid of dodder?
Get rid of all the Dodder plant remnants and the host plants. Dispose of the affected soil carefully and replace the soil with sterile soil. After replacing the soil you can fill the area with plants that the Dodder doesn’t like. Dodder doesn’t thrive on Grasses, Lilies, Legumes, and Crucifers.
How do you get rid of dodder weeds?
Dodder doesn’t thrive on Grasses, Lilies, Legumes, and Crucifers. Pruning is useful if you want to control the Dodder weed in the early stages. Once there’s a sign keep a close watch on the Dodder-prone area. If you see Dodder attached to host plants, prune the host plant too. You may need to prune 1/4th of an inch below the attached point.
What does a dodder plant do?
Upon emergence, the seedling is dependent upon carbohydrates stored in the seed until they attach to a host. Once attached, dodder plant extracts nutrients and water from the host, predisposing the host to disease and insect invasion, affecting fruit set and yield, and even killing off the host.