As the webmaster of the Parasitic Plant Connection, one of the most frequent inquiries I receive from the general public concerns controlling dodder. I am not an agronomist or plant pathologist, therefore I can only provide you information (Table 11.3) I have about chemical control of Cuscuta derived from a chapter on that topic in the following book:
Eplee, R. E. and R. Norris. 1995. Control of parasitic weeds. In M. C. Press and
J. D. Graves [eds.], Parasitic Plants, 256-278 Chapman and Hall, London.
| Soil applied (for various hosts) | chlorpropham |
| alfalfa | DCPA and pronamide |
| lucerne | chlorthaldimethyl trifluralin |
| tomatoes, ornamentals | DCPA |
| ornamentals, blueberries | dichlobenil |
| sugar beets | ethofumesate |
| tomatoes | CDEC |
| carrot, chickpea | chlorthaldimethyl |
| onion, carrot | pendimethalin |
| soybean | butralin |
| chickpea, sugar beet, cranberry | pronamide |
| Post-attachment | |
| alfalfa | paraquat, diquat, dinoseb, DNOC, glyphosate |
| lucerne | glyphosate |
| host denial | diuron, methribuzin, simazine, terbacil |
Before applying any herbicides, I strongly suggest you get a copy of this book and read this chapter. The original table (11.3) contains bibliographic references to each of these host/herbicide combinations. I also think there are some good web sites to check out for control of dodder such as:
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1992/8-12-1992/dodwha.html
http://www.dowelanco.com/western/Treflan_Dodder.htm.
This site is specific to California.
SIUC / College of Science / Parasitic Plant Connection /
Cuscutaceae
URL: http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Cuscutaceae/Dodder.control.html
Last updated:01-Oct-05 / dln