"Dodder is like a car accident. It's a curiosity when you see it in someone else's field, but it's a real problem when it's in yours," a tomato weed specialist once said. The parasitic plant forms a yellow or orange thread-like vine that winds aroundthe above ground parts of affected plants. These shoots produce pegs that penetrate into the plant to absorb nutrients. The vine spreads to adjacent plants as it continues to grow. Dodder has become a growing problem in recent years in many California tomato fields. About 30,000 acres in California are infested with dodder, researchers say. Left uncontrolled, dodder can reduce tomato yields by over 75 percent and produce thousands of seeds that can remain viable for up to 20 years.
展开▼
