Grow Your Own Magazine

Having read various threads on here about carrot fly, I have a question.

It is recommended that you use netting or fleece to cover up. I had originally thought that fleece was just for protection against frosts but can now see that it can be used for other things. As I may not have sowed thinly enough (as I read the threads afterwards!!), I feel I need to put some fleece over the tub. My question is do I do that for its entire life in the tub, or until a certain time?

Yo Shelle, As far as I know root fly have a go round about the midddle of May and again in August, so you won't need to protect them in June or July.

The only carrots I grew last year that were totally free of carrot fly were the ones I used fleece on for the whole of the growing season!
The fleece acts like a mini cloche/greenhouse and actually improves the conditions they are growing in. Water can be applied through it as well, so it's hardly worth taking it off!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I know that tht's the theory-but in my experience they are around most of the summer.even lifting the fleece for half an hour to thin & weed can be enough to let a few in.B******S

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Jane

The fleece can just be a barrier though can't it? It doesn't need a lid...so you can weed at will. I thought the pesky flies came in low and never fly more than a metre high....so a barrier stops them. Is this right?

I didn't bother with anything last year and had no problems. Mind you, not many of my carrots germinated in the first place!

yes Tyto Alba, carrot root fly's do fly low to the ground so you can build a fence around them or use tall pots! The problem with leaving fleece on all the time is that the weeds go beserk underneath and outcompete the carrots, particularly as they're so slow to germinate.

Can you tell i'm rubbish at keeping on top of the weeding? I'm growing root fly resistant varieties up at the lottie (and won't bother to cover them) and non-resistant varieties in pots at home where i can easily keep them covered and weeded regularly!

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!

I'll just be glad if enough flippin' carrots germinate to *need* to worry about the flies!

mutter..... mumble..... grumble.....

same as me, how long are they suposed to take.

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Belgrave-allotments.co.uk

Bleeping years! and they always fork, if they produce a root at all, which most don't, and I always dib and use old compost so not to much nutrient... the parsnips do fine....where's that bottle gone... mumble....glug....mutter......

Planted rainbow carots 25 March, first shoots 8 April - planted in a black 10 litre flower bucket so maybe warmer than the ground. I don't have enough soil depth to put them in the garden.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

forget thinning out - I've been really anal this year and planted single seeds, evenly spaced, within pots. I sprinkled seeds last year and the thinning out did my head in, attracted root fly, forced me to give and so I got tiny carrots that I just gave to the dog. So this year I'm growing in pots again and just putting about 20 seeds in each. I'm also putting the pots onto a potting bench I've got to hopefully eliminate root fly. I'm hopig that I can just leave them to grow and get on with other things...I hate thinning out!

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i think I've sussed it this year. Last year out of 4 separate sowings I got about 6 carrots - pathetic. I reckon this was down to a hard cap on our silty soil (caused by watering the soil) the cap being so hard the baby leaves couldn't get thru...yesterday I looked at a broad bean: big strapping seedling but it was struggling to break the surface of the soil.

I have now sowed my carrots (old seed) in paper pots which I will plant out whole in a couple of weeks. They've all germinated so far!

As for carrot root fly, I keep a net on all summer: even so, I still lost a few

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

So carrot fly isn't just a pest like white fly? Do they damage the carrot?

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Belgrave-allotments.co.uk

Oh Yes! the flies lay eggs which hatch into maggots - the maggots eat the carrots.

yeah - you think you've got lovely big carrots from the tops emerging from the soil, then you pull them up and they're riddled with holes and so get fed to the salivating dog sitting right next to you!

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Oh no mine have no chance then along with the carrot fly’s I have planted where couch grass has been growing found out to late that orange wriggly things that live with couch grass burrow through root veg and your best to wait one year before planting there.

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Belgrave-allotments.co.uk

I have found in other years that carrots planted next to a row of onions reduces the carrot fly problem, but a fleese covering for the growing life is the most effective

My carrots are under fleece from sowing until the last one is picked.
Ok for a lottie, but not so pretty in a garden! ( if that sort of thing bothers you?!)
I still get some carrot fly, and I go for resistant seed too

Yes they're called wire worms.Not sure how much damage they do to carrots though.

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Jane

I've just returned to veg growing (after a break of 10yrs to have my own sprouts). I was pretty organic then with cabbage collars & carrot fly barriers but my neighbours used to use chemical deterrants applied to the soil.

Am I correct in assuming that these are now no longer available, & that barriers are the only legal means of fighting off the dreaded fly?

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Jane

So. These are my "carrot fly resistant" carrots.

Resistant in what sense of the word?

Attached Thumbnails

 

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I had a number of decorative bricks left doing nothing in the garden. So, for the last few
years I have a four brick high wall around my carrot plot and no carrot fly damage. Each year it only takes a few minutes to build.

Carrot fly stay close to the ground so a barrier about 18" TO 24" should in theory keep them out of your cabbage patch.
In my field, I do not use any protective covering on my carrots but grow my carrots in alternate rows with either maincrop onions or spring onions in the rows between them - haven't been bothered with a single carrot fly yet - but I know they are about locally, so this "companion planting" seems to work for me,

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th