Ros has sent a cry for help:
How can we grow carrots without the dreaded pests. Think it’s carrot fly, but not sure. For two years now we have had to cut a lot of (holes & black marks) away to be able to eat what’s left.
We only grow in one 3m x 3m raised bed.
TopVeg replied:
It is tragic to loose your carrots to pests – our sympathies.
It does sound like carrot fly.
damage-carrot-rootfly
There are 3 things you can do to protect your carrots grown in raised beds:
1. grow varieties resistant to carrot fly- such as
2. Raise the sides of your beds to over 2 foot - Carrot fly travel close to the ground, and a barrier 2 foot high will interrupt their flight path, forcing the fly to take another route. If carrots are planted in a container at least 2 foot off the ground, the carrot flies will just zoom past the side of the container, and not bother the carrots growing inside.
3. Cover the beds with enviromesh which will keep the flies out. This has transformed our carrot growing & would be easy to do with your beds.
Hope that helps!
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Sweetheart carrots have yielded well in the vegetable garden & not succumbed to carrot fly after all this time.
sweetheart-carrots
The carrots in the photo had been kept in the ground and pulled on New Year’s Day.
Sweetheart carrots are:
- very sweet
- very early
- brightly coloured
- virtually coreless when young
- superbly flavoured
- heavy yielding
- long and slender
SweetheartCarrots
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carrot-fly-resistant
Carrot Fly Free varieties of carrot are available to grow in the Vegetable Garden. Three examples of carrot fly varieties are:
* Resistafly – mid to late season use
* Flyaway – early
* Early Nantes – suitable for early sowing under glass
Growing carrot fly resistant varieties is a great example of biological control – a method used in organic vegetable production.
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strong>Carrot fly (latin name – Psila rosae) is a disaster, and it is worth knowing how to avoid it.
The carrot flies lay eggs in cracks of the soil, near carrots & parsnips. The eggs hatch
out into maggots which enter the roots & feed on them. They ruin the crop.
* Carrot flies are not strong fliers, so a windswept site is an
advantage.
* Grow a resistant strain.
* Sow seeds thinly, to avoid having to thin the carrots out, as the
fly is attracted by the smell
* weed & pull carrots on a dry, still evening so the scent of the
carrot does not reach the fly
* use a net to keep the fly off the carrot
net
*use a vertical barrier, at least 70cm high, of fine mesh or
polythene around the crop
Carrot fly (latin name – Psila rosae) is a disaster.
The carrot flies lay eggs in cracks of the soil, near carrots & parsnips. The eggs hatch out into maggots which enter the roots & feed on them. They ruin the crop.
* Carrot flies are not strong fliers, so a windswept site is an
advantage.
* Grow a resistant strain.
* Sow seeds thinly, to avoid having to thin the carrots out, as the
fly is attracted by the smell
* weed & pull carrots on a dry, still evening so the scent of the
carrot does not reach the fly
* use a net to keep the fly off the carrot
carrotnet
* use a vertical barrier, at least 70cm high, of fine mesh or
polythene around the crop
