Detailed Explanation of Key Points for High-Yield Cultivation Techniques of Dodder

Dodder, also known as bean parasite, rootless grass, rootless vine, yellow silk vine, etc. Its seeds are used medicinally, with effects of nourishing the liver and kidneys, benefiting essence and improving vision, stopping diarrhea and calming the fetus. It mainly treats soreness and weakness of the waist and knees, impotence and spermatorrhea, frequent urination, dizziness and blurred vision, diminished eyesight, restless fetus, threatened miscarriage, high blood pressure and other conditions. It is mainly produced in Northeast China, North China, Northwest China, East China and other regions.

Morphological characteristics: It is an annual herbaceous vine of the Convolvulaceae family; the stem is slender and orange-yellow, with haustoria growing all along it, parasitic and twining around other plants. It has no leaves. Flowers bloom in summer and autumn, white, small and numerous, clustered into spherical cymes, the peduncle stouter than the vine stem, with bracts and bracteoles; the calyx is shallowly cup-shaped, about 2 mm long, 5-lobed, with lobes triangular-ovate; the corolla is bell-shaped or urn-shaped, about 4 mm long, with lobes ovate and reflexed outward; 5 stamens, alternating with the corolla lobes, filaments short; 5 scales, located near the base of the corolla tube, oblong, with fringed cilia along the margin; the ovary is superior, 2-locular, each locule with 2 ovules, 2 styles, erect, stigma capitate. The capsule is nearly spherical, about 3 mm long, with the persistent corolla on the outside, dehiscing by a lid when mature; 2~4 seeds, light brown, about 1 mm long, with a rough surface.

I. Growth Viability: Dodder prefers high-temperature and humid environments. It has strong adaptability and is often parasitic on plants of the Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Polygonaceae and other families. The growth period is about 100 days. Under artificial cultivation, it is grown mixed with leguminous plants.

II. Land Preparation and Fertilization: Select fields with high terrain and good drainage and cultivate them finely. In combination with land preparation, apply sufficient base fertilizer: 3000 kg of farmyard manure, 15 kg of urea, and 50 kg of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer per mu. Make high beds and wait for sowing.

III. Sowing: Dodder is propagated by seeds. Sowing periods include spring sowing and autumn sowing. Before sowing, first scatter soybean seeds evenly into the soil, with a sowing rate of 7 kg per mu. When the soybean seedlings are 20 cm tall, sow dodder seeds into the soybean field. The sowing rate is 1.5 kg per mu.

IV. Field Management: After the soybean seedlings emerge fully, attention should be paid to cultivation and weeding. Water frequently in dry weather and drain promptly in rainy weather. Once dodder seedlings emerge fully, there is no need to weed. Apply topdressing once in July—August: 5 kg of urea and 5 kg of monopotassium phosphate per mu.

V. Pest and Disease Control: Mainly control common soybean pests and diseases. Use carbendazim to control leaf spot disease, fulvic acid to control yellow wilt disease, and fenvalerate to control bean pod borer.

VI. Harvesting and Processing: Around the Autumn Equinox, when one third of the soybean plants have withered and the dodder fruit shells have turned yellow, cut them together with the soybean plants. After sun-drying and threshing, screen out the dodder seeds, remove all impurities, and they can be sold as medicine.