[ben]

Hello,

I was going to wing it with the carrot fly, but I've bottled it and bought some fleece to cover them.
They have only just popped their heads above the ground.
I was wondering do I need to keep the fleece from touching the leaves with twigs/hoops, or can I just drape the fleece over the leaves and have it touching the leaves ?

Thanks for any help,
Ben

[gillie]

Baby carrots don't like being chafed by fleece or environmesh moving against them in the breeze.  Some say it is OK to pin the fleece down firmly so that it cannot move and then loosen it gradually as the carrots grow.

I take the opposite line and grow my carrots in a cage.  Mine is actually a decrepit cold frame covered with environmesh, but hoops etc. to hold the fleece/mesh away  from the leaves would also do.  By the time the carrots are a foot or so high they don't mind pressing against the cover.

I think you are right to protect them.  As far as I know nobody is growing carrots within a mile of where I live, but I still get carrot fly!

Cheers,

Gillie

[Kristen]

Isn't a "wall" (i.e. fence) of fleece enough, rather than covering them?

[BrianK]

I think I am right in saying carrot fly don't fly high.  Max maybe 30 inches  above soil level.  So if they hit a barrier they try to fly round and not up and over.

Subsequently a barrier around the carrots is just as effective as a barrier over them.


I think.

[gillie]

"Isn't a "wall" (i.e. fence) of fleece enough, rather than covering them?"

I have tried this.  It did not seem very effective and made it more awkward to weed, thin and harvest.  My cage just lifts off.

Cheers,

Gillie

[Kristen]

"My cage just lifts off."

I'm liking the sound of that!

What does the fly attack?  I have Carrots and Parsnips (which I am pretty sure need to be protected) but what about Salsify and Scorzonera? (Yeah, I got a bit carried away with a "try growing everything" approach!)

Anything else?  Beetroot?

[gillie]

"What does the fly attack?"

 Just carrots as far as I am aware.  I never protect anything else.  Mind you I hardly ever get a good crop of salsify or scorzonera because  they fork badly and I think you need a deep stone free soil to get anywhere with them.  Be warned that if you leave a tiny scrap of scorzonera root in the soil when you lift them it will re-grow.  Scorzonera is from the dandelion family.

Cheers,

Gillie

 

[DD.]

"What does the fly attack?"

 Just carrots as far as I am aware. 
 

Not quite correct.

Kristen in correct in saying parsnips as well, but with the size of the root the damage may not be as evident.

The tunnels can let canker in and the damage therefore presents itself in a different manner to that in carrots. It is easy not to connect this with carrot fly.

I've used barriers in the past with reasonable success, but have gone down the supported Enviromesh route this year. Cages are OK, unless you have 32" rows!

[gillie]

"Cages are OK, unless you have 32" rows!"

Which is one of the reasons that I grow things in beds - lots of four foot rows.  I am not tall enough to bend over a two foot six high barrier and would have to take the whole of one side down to thin and weed within the rows.

When I get them to germinate I get reasonably canker free parsnips, but yes, they do sometimes have a few small tunnels around the tops.  Carrots, however, would be slaughtered without protection.

Cheers,

Gillie

[DD.]

To make beds on 800 sq m would be a major construction project!

I'll stick to me rows!

[Kristen]

No need to make beds is there?  Just adopt 4' wide rows

Your 32' row would be about 1 M or maybe 1.5M of 4' wide bed - so OK for a lify-off frame perhaps?

I have lazy-beds - soil from paths just heaped on to the beds (which adds to depth of course, and improves drainage on my heavy clay). I treat them like raised beds in other respects - I never walk on them, for example.

[DD.]

Do you know just have many lifty off frames I'd need, given all the brassicas, carrots, peas, strawberries etc. etc. I need to cover?

[gillie]

My lifty off frames are second hand cold frames from a commercial nursery and they are, I think, 10 ft long and 4ft. 6 inches wide so I might actually end up with as many carrots as DD.  Yes I need a little help with the lifty-offing but they are not heavy!

I agree with Kristen the most important thing is to define where you are going to walk and to keep your feet off the growing areas.   When I started our current veg. plot over twenty years ago we had lazy-beds (sort of) but we have gradually paved the paths and some beds now have low brick retaining walls.  This suits me well as I get older and more arthriticky.

I don't like my kitchen garden looking like a kind of vegetable Guantanamo Bay!  So far I have not had to protect either brassicas or peas, but I have my eye on them and they will be netted against pigeons when it becomes necessary. 

Cheers,

Gillie

(edited to correct a spelling mistake)

[Kristen]

"some beds now have low brick retaining walls"

In thinking about putting boards around my lazy-beds I've been considering brick walls too. more permanent

Have you done this to raise them up to chair-sitting height, or is it just a couple of courses of bricks? and if so I'd appreciate some details please - all the 2-course brick retaining structures I have had have been seriously damaged by frost, sooner or later.

"Do you know just have many lifty off frames I'd need?"

Good point.  I need to machine-sow two widths of Fleece together and then I will have some wide enough to span my blue-water-pipe-arches 

[DD.]

I might actually end up with as many carrots as DD. 

I've got 5 x 32' rows.