Dodder
It’s called Dodder.
Dodder is a yellow-like vine that wraps itself around the host plant and, like a parasite, sucks out all the nutrients from the host.
You see them from time to time on cranberry plants as they would love nothing more than to take over the entire bog.
It’s an odd plant. Once it attaches itself to the cranberry – or whichever other plant it happens to be around – the roots die off and it survives by sucking the life out of the host.
How do Cranberry Farmers deal with Dodder?
If there’s a small amount of the weed showing, farmers will apply contact herbicides early in the season to mitigate the effects.
If it’s widespread then they need to control and contain it by burning the crop, using herbicides and tilling the soil.
Prevention is always best when trying to manage dodder and that’s done by using clean seed, clean machinery and limiting or restricting movement of people and animals from areas that have dodder to the areas that don’t.
Hope this helps.
Trivia: “What do you call cranberries, dried meat and fat?”
– Cranby
