Carrot fly

Found this at an organic site:

Grass mulch:

Put a layer of grass mowings 5cm deep between the rows of carrots when they reach 10-15cm high. This should come right up to the base of the plants. Top up with a further 1cm layer at weekly intervals for four weeks. The mulch enables the carrots to make better use of nutrients and water in the soil, encouraging healthy growing conditions and improving their ability to resist attack. It also makes it more difficult for the female flies to lay their eggs in cracks in the soil. A range of creatures will make their home under the mulch, some of which will be predators of the carrot fly such as ground beetles and centipedes. Watch out for slugs and snails which will also thrive in these conditions!

Ridging:

Earth up the carrots with soil to form a ridge at least 5cm high. This may need to be repeated throughout the season to maintain a 5cm ridge. The crop appears to benefit from the extra support given by the earth, and there should be noticeably fewer carrots with green shoulders. Rabbits and slugs also seem to be put off.


Timing of harvest:

Lift main crop carrots by September/October rather than leaving in the ground over winter. Never leave crops known to be infected in the ground, where they could become a source of infection the following year. They can be safely fed to animals, or composted in the centre of a well built heap that will reach a high temperature.

 

I have not grown carrots before, but I am going to do it this year. I am growing them the titchmarsh way with rows of parsley in between (put in pots so it does not take over the garden).
Good Luck with your growing.
:D

 

badsal72 I hadn't heard of growing them with parsley, I usually grow mine with onions and *touch wood* have been OK up to now

 

I have also read that planting carrots next to onions deters carrot fly because of the strong smell of the onions. I also read that if you put a polythene wall around were you have planted your carrots they will be protected from carrot fly I will be trying both these methods this year

 

I was told today by a dear friend who as been gardening many years that to avoid carrot fly if you put off sowing your seedlings until after the carrot fly as laid its eggs normally early summer (may) and then sow a quick growing varity such as pioneer you will get a good crop in the autumn.
He as used this method for years and its worked for him. I'm going to give it ago see what happens.

 

One of the only insecticides that can control the carrot fly is something called PHORATE. It is an agricultural systemic insecticide that probably is not used any more because of the health & safety issues involved with it's use. :eek: It was also used on fruit i believe. My father got some a long time ago from a local farmer - which i still have, but i am reluctant to use it becaue of what i have read about it on various web sites. Very dodgy kit! Not much use to you unfortunately. I have used the 'barrier' method myself for a while now and get a much better return on my favourites - Juwarot, Healthmaster, Ingot and Purple Dragon.

 

I would love to know how you all get on this year. The poly side method does seem to be well worth a try. I have tried onions and shallots each side but no luck for me. There is nothing nicer than home grown, taste, freshness I have munched on one many times almost straight from the soil. But the fly always has some. I have just read they overwinter in the soil, have 2 cycles same year.

[ 28. February 2006, 03:52 PM: Message edited by: hans ]

 

I plant garlic with my carrots and the carrotfly don't like the smell and are kept away

 

Earth up your carrots as mentioned before, also soak some string in paraffin and tie it up beside them. Either that or put a little paraffin soaked sand in a small container beside the carrots.

 

The books say that you should sow VERY thinly indeed, to reduce thinning - it's apparently the smell of broken leaves that attract carrotfly

Also, they say that you should thin late at night, and water immediately after you do so. This will help slugs of course, but such is life.

I'm going to plant mine between rows of onions, but have read that onions like manure, and carrots don't - maybe I'll just dig in alternate rows of carrots

 

Sow thinly to reduce need for thinning, thin in early evening and remove all debris completely out of the garden (I bury thinnings in the ground at the opposite end, call me paranoid!, use physical barriers as mentioned above, intercrop with spring onion. I've grown resistant varieties in the past but found them not as sweet as other varieties. Either companion planting DOES work for me or I wouldn't have problems with carrot fly anyway, as I've never grown them alone!

 

Good ol' Alan, says planting with parsley should keep the fly at bay. I am trying that this year.

 

You can completely eliminate the need for thinning if you sow three seeds at 2" intervals for early carrots and at about 4" interval for maincrop carrots. When the seeds have germinated and are big enough to handle reduce the seedlings to one at each station.
I usually sow a 5 metre row like this for my maincrop but also sow a short row in the normal way for earlies. These I don't thin - we just start picking from one end.