[woodburner]

It's probably my imagination but my carrots seem to be getting more and more riddled with tiny tunnels, so my question is:
Is it better to leave them in the ground, lift them and clamp them, lift them and freeze them, or is it just my imagination?    :?  :roll:

Its as well to pick them but the most important advice has been missed, your soil needs to be sorted to stop this happening again, I myself would use Jays fluid as a soil wash and I wouldnt plant carrots in that plot next year, "use crop rotation" next year try salads in this plot as they can be grown quicker and if needed the area can be cleaned a second time using the likes of Jay,s fluid.
A good tip when planting carrot is to have your onions in the next row,
this helps keep the carrot fly away from the carrots and the onion fly will keep away from the onions, or by using raised bed for the carrots 26in high, this will stop the carrot fly from laying eggs in your soil as the fly wont fly that high, hence it wont lay its eggs in your soil.

I don't see how the soil can be the problem.
It's almost virgin soil, no veggies grown on it in living memory, although it did have abandoned blackcurrant bushes on it until a couple of years ago. Other than them there was only couch grass and nettles, which I cleared late last year. Whilst I have every intention of rotating crops it's not relevent as the source of this years problem.
Whilst I have nothing against using armillatox, (the only reason it's not certified for soil sterilisation and some other purposes is because the company cannot afford the £3million for the required tests) I would only sterilise the soil if there was some major problem that could not be dealt with in any other way, as sterilising the soil kills everything good and bad and the good beasties are slower to recover than the bad.
If I were to make a really high raised bed to keep the flies away, what wold I do the next year?
The "interplanting with onions" (or anything else for that matter) does have scientific evidience behind it.
I will try fleece fencing next year, but about this years crop, are the little b*****s really still growing? I'd have thought they'd all be overwintering as pupae by now.  :?

[Lynne]

Last year I tried growing my carrots in an old bath propped up on bricks - no carrot fly and a large crop! I've now got 2 baths for next year.

Not so pleasing on the eye unless it's on an allotment though - it wouldn't really suit a back garden I suppose.