Start Of A New Season.

[jok 3,388]

Rabbits can relax, breed and get ready for next September. In the meantime other things need to be addressed. THE ALLOTMENT. There's no point in having meat with no veg. As you can see from the attached image the garden is a bit on the large side. I'ts what they call a double. I'm a bit of an old hand so hand digging is the only way to go. I mucked completely last autumn and in certain areas dug in used brewers hops. (my secret weapon).Next week my first early potatoes will be in even though I run the risk of frosts. However, when I put them in, I ridge, exactly as the farmers do. (trust the farmers). Next will be spring onions, early cabbage and cauliflower, radish and swede. Thing is there is not so much time between now and early April sowing. Now this is where I could do with a little bit of help. Parsnips and carrots. I sowed a good line of parsnip last year for 1 plant. My carrots came up OK but as you might imagine the carrot fly hit me. I had the dreaded onion thing which I can't pronounce but sufficient to say was a little brown grub, the onion tops curled up and a lot of lost bulbs. This actually spread to my leeks as well. However. I am still eating well and for a regular family of 5 we've not bought anything. I hope, like the rabbiting, you have as successful an allotment as myself. Happy days. Jok.

 

[mole trapper 1,694]

Great job fella! I'm being nagged at the moment about getting the beds ready, keep telling her, I've got to get all these bare root Apple trees in first. Nearly there,only eleven left now.

We did get the garlic, red and white onions in last week so it's not that bad.

She also got up another greenhouse on the weekend so its not Like nothing's being done.

Also, even down here were still getting sharp morning frosts.

Edited March 10, 2015 by mole trapper

[darbo 4,776]

Rabbits can relax, breed and get ready for next September. In the meantime other things need to be addressed. THE ALLOTMENT. There's no point in having meat with no veg. As you can see from the attached image the garden is a bit on the large side. I'ts what they call a double. I'm a bit of an old hand so hand digging is the only way to go. I mucked completely last autumn and in certain areas dug in used brewers hops. (my secret weapon).Next week my first early potatoes will be in even though I run the risk of frosts. However, when I put them in, I ridge, exactly as the farmers do. (trust the farmers). Next will be spring onions, early cabbage and cauliflower, radish and swede. Thing is there is not so much time between now and early April sowing. Now this is where I could do with a little bit of help. Parsnips and carrots. I sowed a good line of parsnip last year for 1 plant. My carrots came up OK but as you might imagine the carrot fly hit me. I had the dreaded onion thing which I can't pronounce but sufficient to say was a little brown grub, the onion tops curled up and a lot of lost bulbs. This actually spread to my leeks as well. However. I am still eating well and for a regular family of 5 we've not bought anything. I hope, like the rabbiting, you have as successful an allotment as myself. Happy days. Jok.

 

the allotment.jpg

to deter carrot fly apart from buying carrot fly resistant seeds.Put a 2ft high polythene sheet all around your carrot bed ive read the carrot fly cant go over 18 inch high always had success using this method.

[Tiercel 6,986]

 

Rabbits can relax, breed and get ready for next September. In the meantime other things need to be addressed. THE ALLOTMENT. There's no point in having meat with no veg. As you can see from the attached image the garden is a bit on the large side. I'ts what they call a double. I'm a bit of an old hand so hand digging is the only way to go. I mucked completely last autumn and in certain areas dug in used brewers hops. (my secret weapon).Next week my first early potatoes will be in even though I run the risk of frosts. However, when I put them in, I ridge, exactly as the farmers do. (trust the farmers). Next will be spring onions, early cabbage and cauliflower, radish and swede. Thing is there is not so much time between now and early April sowing. Now this is where I could do with a little bit of help. Parsnips and carrots. I sowed a good line of parsnip last year for 1 plant. My carrots came up OK but as you might imagine the carrot fly hit me. I had the dreaded onion thing which I can't pronounce but sufficient to say was a little brown grub, the onion tops curled up and a lot of lost bulbs. This actually spread to my leeks as well. However. I am still eating well and for a regular family of 5 we've not bought anything. I hope, like the rabbiting, you have as successful an allotment as myself. Happy days. Jok.

 

the allotment.jpg

to deter carrot fly apart from buying carrot fly resistant seeds.Put a 2ft high polythene sheet all around your carrot bed ive read the carrot fly cant go over 18 inch high always had success using this method.

 

I have never been able to grow carrots because of carrot fly. Last year I planted up a large box of carrots on top of my ferret cage. That will sort them Guess what? They had them there. I think with my back garden being on a slope the 2ft flying height does not count as no matter where I plant carrots there is always some ground higher than it that they can drop in off.

 

TC

Edited March 17, 2015 by tiercel

[darbo 4,776]

 

 

Rabbits can relax, breed and get ready for next September. In the meantime other things need to be addressed. THE ALLOTMENT. There's no point in having meat with no veg. As you can see from the attached image the garden is a bit on the large side. I'ts what they call a double. I'm a bit of an old hand so hand digging is the only way to go. I mucked completely last autumn and in certain areas dug in used brewers hops. (my secret weapon).Next week my first early potatoes will be in even though I run the risk of frosts. However, when I put them in, I ridge, exactly as the farmers do. (trust the farmers). Next will be spring onions, early cabbage and cauliflower, radish and swede. Thing is there is not so much time between now and early April sowing. Now this is where I could do with a little bit of help. Parsnips and carrots. I sowed a good line of parsnip last year for 1 plant. My carrots came up OK but as you might imagine the carrot fly hit me. I had the dreaded onion thing which I can't pronounce but sufficient to say was a little brown grub, the onion tops curled up and a lot of lost bulbs. This actually spread to my leeks as well. However. I am still eating well and for a regular family of 5 we've not bought anything. I hope, like the rabbiting, you have as successful an allotment as myself. Happy days. Jok.

 

the allotment.jpg

to deter carrot fly apart from buying carrot fly resistant seeds.Put a 2ft high polythene sheet all around your carrot bed ive read the carrot fly cant go over 18 inch high always had success using this method.

 

I have never been able to grow carrots because of carrot fly. Last year I planted up a large box of carrots on top of my ferret cage. That will sort them Guess what? They had them there. I think with my back garden being on a slope the 2ft flying height does not count as no matter where I plant carrots there is always some ground higher than it that they can drop in off.

 

TC

 

Thats unfortunate TC half the battle with growing is keeping on top of pests etc but sometimes its not worth the hassle with certain things

[jok 3,388]

I think we are all losing the plot here. How flat is Lincolnshire? Are they one of the biggest growers of carrots in the UK. Now correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that area flat as a witches. I don't recall 2ft high polythene walls round any of their kingdoms. Wish I knew their secret. Jok.

[darbo 4,776]

Would a commercial grower on a large scale use a insecticide not available to joe public to control carrot fly? ie spray the crop

 

.Carrot fly control also relies heavily on the use of insecticides, particularly the pyrethroid pesticide lambda-cyhalothrin, applied as a spray in the field immediately before the oviposition periods of the adult flies. Approximately 626 kg of lambda-cyhalothrin were used for this purpose in 2003.

Edited March 18, 2015 by darbo

[Tiercel 6,986]

Two farms I used to shoot around this area grew organic carrots, but they do sacrifice the edges of the fields to carrot fly. It is usually the first two rows each side of the field and about 5 or 6 feet on the ends of each row that get affected, the rest get let alone. It is as if when the fly comes across carrots they lay their eggs on the first ones they come across, even if those carrots have already been infected.

 

If you looked at the field from a distance you could see the yellow foliage all around the edge of the field with a green centre.

 

TC

[darbo 4,776]

ive heard of organic growers using big sheets of envirofleece to cover/grow organic carrots.

 

 

The white sheets at the top of the pic was some organic growing of crops under envirofleece.

Edited March 18, 2015 by darbo

[jok 3,388]

So all I need on my allotment is an area of not less than an acre, devoted to the carrot fly to enable me to grow a maybe crop. Hell's teeth. All we've got is a blinking 22m x 5m plot. Do you know what.? These guys in Lincolnshire and elsewhere can bleeding get on with it. I'll buy their produce all day long.Jok.

[Tiercel 6,986]

So all I need on my allotment is an area of not less than an acre, devoted to the carrot fly to enable me to grow a maybe crop. Hell's teeth. All we've got is a blinking 22m x 5m plot. Do you know what.? These guys in Lincolnshire and elsewhere can bleeding get on with it. I'll buy their produce all day long.Jok.

Thats what I do now.

 

TC

[Tiercel 6,986]

That said. 223 earths up his carrots and says carroty fly is not a problem. When he told us about it I tried it that year, with a small reduction in plants infected.

 

TC

[jok 3,388]

Well. I posted on the 10th of March and to be honest thought I'd have a few more comments/posts. The allotment is looking very good. All potatoes in, broad beans, onion sets, parsnip and beetroot seed, strawberry plants and a rhubarb root, 2 rows of carrot, all the brassicas coming on well in the greenhouse together with squash, marrow and pumpkin. Money maker tomato yet to make a break through but that's to be expected. All in all not too bad. Jok.

[jok 3,388]

You are not wrong. Amazing as it may seem but aspirin is the elixir. Don't mind trying anything though. All the talk about the carrot fly flying at no more than 5 inches is to me a load of bull. Set 2 rows today and gave them both the aspirin. Everything else looks great. Even the early weeds are coming on good.Jok.

[darbo 4,776]

Where have you got 5 inches from.

 

Control

Non-chemical control

• Sow sparsely to avoid thinning the seedlings. Female carrot flies searching for egg-laying opportunities are attracted by the smell released when surplus plants are removed
• Late sown carrots (after mid-May) avoid the first generation of this pest; similarly carrots harvested before late August avoid the second generation
• Protect vulnerable crops by surrounding them with 60cm (2ft) high barriers made of clear polythene to exclude the low-flying female flies, or cover the plants with insect-proof netting, such as Enviromesh. It is essential to practise crop rotation with these methods, otherwise adult carrot flies may emerge within the protected crop from overwintered pupae in the soil
• Choose carrot cultivars that are less susceptible to carrot fly, such as 'Fly Away', 'Maestro', 'Resistafly' and 'Sytan'. These cultivars are less susceptible to carrot fly, rather than being fully resistant
• A mixture of pathogenic nematodes, sold as 'Nemasys Grow Your Own', can be watered into the soil to control the young larvae. This is available by mail order from biological control suppliers
• One company, Just Green Ltd, Unit 14, Springfield Road, Burnham on Crouch, Essex CM0 8UA, 01621 785088, supplies a predatory beetle Atheta coriaria for carrot root fly control.

Chemical control

Lambda-cyhalothrin (Westland Resolva Bug Killer) can be sprayed against the adult stage of this pest. There are no soil-applied pesticides available for garden use against carrot fly larvae.

Downloads

Pesticides for gardeners (Adobe Acrobat pdf document outlining pesticides available to gardeners)

Biological control suppliers (Adobe Acrobat pdf document listing biological control and suppliers)

Biology

• The maggots hatch from eggs laid in late May–June and in August-September
• Newly-hatched larvae feed on the fine roots but later bore into the tap roots. The brown scars are where tunnels near the root surface have collapsed
• Two or three generations of carrot fly can develop between late spring and autumn, with the pest overwintering as larvae or pupae

See also...