the dreaded carrot fly

[Ken the Chef]

I have been growing carrots for two years now and have always ended up with carrot fly each year.
This year I really went to a lot of trouble to stop them, but to no avail.
I used a new raised bed that is 15” high [not used for carrot previously] I well dug and removed most of the stones and sprayed with the correct nematodes and erected a full bed cover of micro mesh which completely sealed off the bed, only lifting to plant my carrots beetroot and parsnips.
I planted every 20cm to avoid thinning. Some of the early pickings were ok but I noticed the signs that the ^%*** fly had managed to invade my secure bed. They even had a go at my parsnips.
I took what I thought would be good precautions but the little blighters still found a way in.
I am at a loss as to what to do next year.
They even got into my tubs of carrot which sit on top of a 18” wall that make it 3ft to the top of the buckets. I didn’t think they could fly that high.
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dave_norm_smith]

Little gits! I never got around to covering mine this year but I did broadcast sow some spare spring onions over the area once the carrots were sown. I'm not sure if its coincidence but I haver had the best crop in three year? Some of the fellas on the exhibition veg blogs use a garlic solution sprayed over the plants to mask the smell as well.

[WendyC]

I too have had bad carrot fly attack this year despite them being fenced to 18" with v fine mesh. I also grew Flyaway but I guess they didn't read the label. Watched Monday's Beechgrove today where they were uncovering various veg for showing and only had 2 carrots worth showing as the carrot fly damage was so bad. Theirs looked like they were grown in a poly tunnel and raised off the ground. Seems like sometimes you can't win.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I think you might find that low flying carrot fly is an old wives tale.

Colin

[Two_Sheds]

My carrots aren't too bad this year. There are tunnels but I can cut those out. They've been under debris netting since I sowed them, but of course it comes off to weed

[Shadylane]

Mine were protected with some old voile that I sowed together. Worked a treat last year, not this year though. Carrots are stumpy, forked (despite hours of sieving) and riddled with tunnels. Sometimes I wonder why we bother with carrots

[Aberdeenplotter]

The story that carrot flies don't go over 18" is a complete myth. Exhibition growers have their long crrots in barrels which are 3 - 4ft high and still get problems if they don't cover with mesh or fleece.

Even using fleece though there can be problems. My kitchen carrots and my parsley were grown under the same length of fleece and were decimated quite early on. I must have shut them in instead of shutting them out.

[Aisles]

Companion planeting will help use marigolds which encourage the Hoverfly which eats carrot flies.

Also plant between your onions as they seek out the carrot by the smell and the onion will confuse them.

Also onion fly does the same thing hunts out your onions by their smell.

Hoverflies will devour onion flies as well.

[Two_Sheds]

the Hoverfly which eats carrot flies....Hoverflies will devour onion flies as well.

Really? I didn't know that - I was always under the impression that they feed on nectar, honeydew and pollen (their larvae do eat aphids)

[Two_Sheds]

plant between your onions as they seek out the carrot by the smell and the onion will confuse them.

That's the theory. Have you had it actually work though? I haven't. I've tried Resistafly, companion planting, barrier netting, everything.

[miker2d2]

I must have been lucky, i didn't take any precautions and got a great crop from tubs. I grow in my garden, could this mean they are less prone to fly rather than those grown in allotments with other carrot crops in the vincinity?

think Ill mesh up for next year

[Chef_uk]

Same here, no protection but did plant spring onions down one side of the bed and had a load of onions growing in the next bed. Can only think that was what stopped them.

[Shadylane]

I must have been lucky, i didn't take any precautions and got a great crop from tubs. I grow in my garden, could this mean they are less prone to fly rather than those grown in allotments with other carrot crops in the vincinity?

think Ill mesh up for next year

I grow some at home too in half an old dustbin. No protection and no carrot fly.

[Two_Sheds]

could this mean they are less prone to fly ... than those grown in allotments ?

Definitely - on an allotment you have squillions of carrots growing and a lot of those will become infested with carrot fly maggots, they will pupate into adult flies and so the cycle continues.

In your garden there probably aren't any other carrots in the vicinity, so the flies won't be around in great numbers - they'll stick to the allotments where food is plentiful

[Tam]

I use a loose bricked wall around each year's carrot bed and they are never attacked, but, if I scatter
some spare seed in the open, they are invariably "got at" - that is the resultant carrots.