[Anton]

Sow carrots towards the end of the month. Outwit the carrot fly. As it flies low and in straight lines, it is defeated by a barrier (30cm /2ft high) of fine netting or polythene.

Any comments?

Anton

[WG.]

Agreed.  You will find the same idea on various threads on this site.  

[Dan]

Yes and ten mins ago i just saw the same tip in Carol Kliens grow your own book.

[crowndale]

I have rigged a barrieir round my seed patch already though no sign of any seedlings yet!  Last year at least half my carrots were got at but I didn't know about the need for a barrier.  Hopefully will work better this year.

[BAK]

as whisky_golf says ... see this thread for starters.

http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=2500

[Axe Victim]

I'm going to go and measure the height of my carrot beds now...I'm panicking in case they are a centimetre or two short. I just knocked up some boxes from old pallets...approx 30 cms high (approx)....is it a case that, at 30 cms they smack into the sides but at 29 cms they clear the barrier and settle in for the summer?
 :o

 

[Gaynor]

carrot fly can fly  8feet in the air when it needs to. suggest you go out and buy some fleece and keep your carrots well covered.

[Aunt Sally]

Hi Gaynor,

Welcome to the plot (even though you don't bear good news)

Pop up to the welcome forum and introduce yourself  

[GrannieAnnie]

I thought it was 2 foot?  That's why I'm trying the bath method this year!!

[Aunt Sally]

This is a good fact sheet Carrot Fly Fact Sheet

[John]

That's an interesting fact sheet - I haven't suffered carrot damage but I now realise Ive had that same damage on parsnips.

[milkman]

My instinct is not to believe it - with the rapidly changing weather patterns over the last few years how do the carrot flies know precisely which weather window they shouldn't be reproducing.  My tried and tested method - grow carrots under a viromesh tent - perfect results every time and no measuring sticks involved!  

[CJ]

This forum is brilliant ! so glad I joined     Thanks for the link to the Carrot Fly fact sheet Aunt Sally - just what I was searching for.    I had seen an earlier link to it posted by Whisky-Golf, but was unable to find it again.  

 :idea: John, is there any chance we can have a category on Pests to make searching easier for this type of info :?:   Sorry to make extra work for you.

[Sadgit]

I might as well just cover my whole plot in fleece and be done with it

none of the old gaffs at our site use fleece, just a bits of wire and string...

[John]

 :idea: John, is there any chance we can have a category on Pests to make searching easier for this type of info :?:   Sorry to make extra work for you.

The problem is that too many sections can make it dificult to find things as well -  someone would be bound to post about vandals in a pests section