Growing carrots

 Talking to a local farmer who grows organically as part of the
Riverford set-up, I asked him what he does about carrot fly because
that seems to be a repetitive worry on here.  He said "sow after 28th
May" which has something to do with them flying - or not flying!  This
date may vary for other parts of the country but that was his tip.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

 
I always understood that Carrot Fly were active when Cow Parsley was
in flower.
For those who don't know it http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/we=
ed_information/weed.php?id=115
David

 

There are generally two batches of carrot fly larvae, one early in the
year and the other in the autumn. So if you sow after late spring and
then harvest around late August/early September you miss the little
blighters. When I grew them in the garden, I grew onions on one side
of the carrots and garlic on the other - the smells might have had an
impact.

Carrot fly's been a pain on the allotment, though (the allotment is
another story altogether!) but I wonder if that's because, say, the
chap next door harvests/thins and the carrot fly can smell that a mile
off and descend in numbers.

Cheers, Jake
=============================================================
URGling from the less wet end of Swansea Bay where it's about
the same moisture-wise as the more wet end.

The cat's web site is at www.pillie.me.uk.

 
Garlic, onion and marigolds are all meant to help.
I put them between onions and beetroots and late leeks this year, which may
or may not have helped, but the carrots thsemselves are tiny.  :-(

 4ax.com:

That seems to be the case IMO.

I am the only one for a mile or so who grows carrots, yet if I grow them
without barrier protection I get them, and I don't thin them. So it seems
to me that the fly is "sniffing" the ones from an allotment site which is
about or just over that mile.

This is my second year without the dreaded fly.

Btw, what can be better than freshly dug and grated carrot? (OK, a lottery
win) We had yesterday the last of the tomatoes within a salad of the usual
but the toms and grated carrot were wonderful.

Just need a way to store the rest of the carrots, last year the bad early
winter conditions forced me to leve them in the ground.

Good luck to all
Baz