Just a quick one about carrots...

I have thinned my carrot seedlings today and in this container have kept about ten, two rows of four and two sort of in the middle!. As you can see from the photo, I have also built a makeshift cover, using wire and fleece.
Should I leave this on the whole time now, in case of carrot fly? I have no idea if and when they will arrive on the scene, but I don't want to leave it to chance so thought I had better cover up. I was just worried that not enough light would get through the fleece... thanks...

 

Oh ...and tomorrow I am going to transplant my broccoli seedlings into two big containers as well...should I cover these with fleece also, to protect them from 'broccoli eating creatures'? I could easily cover them with netting instead, as I have plenty of that on standby...
There are definitely no pigeons in my garden to devour them..my cats are on 24 hour patrol...

 

The best thing to do with the carrots is to lift the container up onto something, carrot fly cannot fly over 500mm high so they will be safe from attack.

 

oh right...that's easy to do. You'd think they would have wised up to that and adpated! lol So you reckon I won't need the fleece at all now then?

 

Carrot fly are considering a space programme, but are lacking funding at the moment.

I use barriers to keep em out, like putting them in the cold frame.

 

So where do these carrot flies come from
I mean I have no veg gardens within say five hundred yards of my plot in a housing estate ?

Jack McH

 

They live on other umbellifers too Jack. Could be Hogweed or Cow Parsley around on waste ground or railway banks etc.

 

I don't think there are any broccoli eating creatures about yet that don't have feathers (and my dog) but I will keep him on a lead.

 

I don't know, i've seen a few white butterflys already.

 

Your a good way south of us Ziggy but maybe time to get the nets out then, I was hopeing for another month without.

 

On Saturday I went to but some more fleece to cover the broccoli but instead found some 'micro mesh' which is really flexible and seems perfect for covering my broccoli seedlings. To be hinest, they look ridiculous in the three large containers that I have got, but I am determined that I will get three sprigs of broccoli from them, some time in about October!! So far, they have cost me about 30 pound...ha ha ha but I am enjoying it..and to be honest, they are actually my favourite at the moment...so are worth the effort! I have made a little wire frame to go over each container and then made a sort of 'bell-shaped' micromesh cover for them, tying them off with string around the container; nothing can now get in...or out! I shall take a pic of them when I get a minute...