Plant Identification: CLOSED: Invasive Root, 1 by gailbon

gailbon wrote:
I have this invasive root(?) growing in my organic vegetable garden. At first I thought it was dodder, but it does not grow over my plants, but spreads underground. Last summer, my plants seemed to turn yellow and die, but I thought it was due to the drought in my area. I live near coastal New Jersey; zone 7A. I tried to pull it out of my garden, but it breaks off and is impossible to get it all. It has attached to the few weeds that are growing (we’ve had an extremely mild winter), and also to the wood railroad ties surrounding my garden bed. I’m attaching a photo so you can see what it looks like when I pull up the mulch.