Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Leafydan on November 07, 2017, 13:49

Title: Allium leaf miner
Post by: Leafydan on November 07, 2017, 13:49
I have just completed my first year of my allotment, with varying success. My biggest failure,( ant that of the whole allotment), was the complete wipe-out of the leeks. They all looked ok but when we prepared them, they were full of brown critters,resembling a brown grain of rice. I found on the RHS site that it is the Allium leaf miner, a fly that first appeared in 2002 ,and has swept most of England and Wales "hobby gardeners and allotments". Has anyone else had this problem and is it worth trying again next year ?
Title: Re: Allium leaf miner
Post by: DD. on November 07, 2017, 14:35
Welcome to the forums.

As you have a specific question relating to GYO, I'll move this post there. In the meantime you might want to have a look at this thread:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=126870.0
Title: Re: Allium leaf miner
Post by: John Martin on January 13, 2022, 12:30
Help Please,

For the first time I have been affected by Alium Leaf Fly and have been advised not to compost any affected plants.
Is it considered safe to dig in affected plants as I religiously follow a four year crop rotation?
Any help or advice in dealing wit this problem would be very much appreciated.
Cheers

John
Title: Re: Allium leaf miner
Post by: Lardman on January 13, 2022, 14:23
The only solution I found was to permanently cover the all allium crops with enviromesh. I had no issue with composting material and I can't see how it would cause a problem either. The problem is so bad here I no longer grow anything that gets them  :(
Title: Re: Allium leaf miner
Post by: sunshineband on January 13, 2022, 16:54
yes, the same here... cover with fine mesh like enviromesh to keep the critturs out. Also keeps out Leek Moth etc to and should solve your problem

Regarding disposing of infected stems, when the little pupae hatch out they will look for live material on which to lay eggs (once mated of course). If it is composted, they may well die anyway and there certainly won;t be much for any larvae to feed on, so I shouldn't worry about that

You mentioned crop rotation, but I need to add that if you grow any Alliums on the same ground again, there is a good chance there may be stray pupae in the soil  which will hatch and then be trapped UNDER your mesh and so  alt of damage!!!