Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Deborah1 on January 03, 2017, 18:23
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Hello. I searched before posting, but didn't find any recent replies. My carrots are normally pretty rubbish and I'm thinking of trying either Flyaway or Resistafly. They are both F1 hybrids (which I usually don't buy as I like to save my own seed.) Can anyone tell me if they are worth it?
Thanks in advance.
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Tried them years ago. Taste wasn't a patch on the good old staples like Nantes or Autumn King and worse still, some fly got in. You have to remember that they are fly resistant (probably due to less taste!), but not fly proof. The only way in my book is by a physical barrier.
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I have grown both those varieties in the past, they are resistant, up to a point. They may get some fly damage, also they taste ok, but are not the most flavoursome varieties. I now grow non resistant varieties, but under a cloche of enviromesh. This virtually eliminates carrot fly problems for me, and my carrots were always infested by fly.
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I think we both said virtually the same thing, at virtually the same time, but using different words!
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I'll second the enviromesh method, works a treat. Left a row uncovered and they were riddled with maggots, yuck.
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Thanks a lot! Well I think I'll stick with my old favourites then. At least the bits of carrot that I can salvage from them taste good, (even if they look manky.) I have tried growing them under fleece before but not that successfully. May well give it another go.
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I have tried with fleece and debris netting neither of which worked for me but I used enviromesh this year and had virtual perfect results.
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Enviromesh is the way to go!
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Indubitably!
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I've tried the resistafly version and the reason carrot fly avoid them is down to them tasting like orange wood, utterly vile things.
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We grow them in holey buckets. about five ft above ground level on a shelf behind the greenhouse.
No need for mesh, just some water and away you go!
Mind you, we don't use too many carrots...
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I grow all my carrots in about thirty 10 inch pots scattered around the plot and around the patio.
The soil level is 1.5 inches below the rim of the pot.
I always put debris netting over when they are first sown, to deter foxes or my cats having a dig.
Once the tops are about an inch high I remove the netting and thin them out.
Perhaps I have been lucky or that method works for me but not ever seen any carrot fly or anything blemish my carrots.
I grow Chantenay Red cored, Touchon (French Nantes) and Amsterdam Forcing mostly.
I sow regularly from March to September and harvest from June to March depending on variety.
I replant those thinned ones into new pots.
One thing I did notice having just looked at many older gardening books, they all say to sow after May if you have a tendancy to get high levels of carrot fly.
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I tried the Resistafly one year, I had much less fly damage but the taste was not good, hardly worth bothering. I mow grow in tubs 3 feet high, not had any fly damage last 3 years
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I tried the Resistafly one year, I had much less fly damage but the taste was not good, hardly worth bothering. I mow grow in tubs 3 feet high, not had any fly damage last 3 years
That's very interesting, Upthe, because I understand that the fly go for the smell of bashed carrots in a big way, so you may well have hit on the reason!
Excellent!
We grow them a bit higher than 3', and haven't seen a single fly mark anywhere, so it's Autumn King 2 for us every time! And in succession too! (Four buckets is enough)!