[maxie]

I always grow my carrots where the leeks have come out of,the soils broke down by the leek roots and is nice and loose.
When you sow them keep watering the row lightly till they are showing,thin them out by just lifting the edge of the enviromesh.
James scarlet intermediate and autumn king are my favs.
If your going to grow carrots get some enviromesh,its a must as far as im concerned.

[savbo]

I was going to use fleece for my new carrot bed (because I have lots) - what are the main differences between it and enviromesh?

[flitwickone]

good question what is the difference  :blink:i have my shallots and onions fleeced at the moment i was gonna use the fleece for the carrots

[Missy1970]

Watching this with great interest as I've been wondering exactly the same thing, I have fleece dont really want to fork for something else

Missy

[janet12000]

I did an experiment last year with carrots and the loo roll method. Some went in them and some didn't.
The loo roll method worked a treat 
I just planted the loo roll after germination.
Also grew those little 'ball' type carrots in a cat litter tray (not a used one). 

[maxie]

Fleece is easily damaged by the wind whereas enviromesh is a woven material that is much stronger,if you look after it you should get years out of it.Its a bit of an outlay but if you intend to be growing for years worth it.

[viettaclark]

Are you using fleece/environmesh to prevent fly attack or to protect against weather or both?
I'm cloching my early carrots like last year. 18" raised bed + cloche = no fly (touch wood!)

[flitwickone]

im using fleece so the birds dont lob em out the ground but i wanted to use for the carrots

[bailey]

doesn't that use an awful lot of compost Bailey?

sorry did,nt mean fill it as such with compost,, i either use old grow bags or similar for the bottom layer or old polystyrene module things,, then just have a depth of good growing medium... its worked well for me so far and i don,t get bothered with the carrot fly ect..

[maxie]

Im using enviromesh to keep the fly off,works a treat i cant praise this stuff highly enough 

[Salmo]

Enviromesh: http://www.gardening-naturally.com/acatalog/Enviromesh.html#aEM001 (not used them myself, but seen them recommended here)

They are as cheap as anywhere and they only charge £2.20 postage however big your order is. You save money if you order by the yard rather than a set size. The difference is that if it is cut by the yard the cut edge is not hemmed, which does not matter as it does not fray easily.

Because enviromesh is quite stiff it is easy to build a tent supported by 2ft long pieces of 1 inch plastic pipe, as used for overflows from roof tanks. I bury one long edge of the net, bang the pipes 6inches in the ground at roughly 3 ft apart over the sown area, pull the net over and wiegh down the other 3 edges with wood or stones. I find it best to place the supports along the sown rows rather than between them as this allows you to hoe between the rows easily.

I also tried their Envirotect last year. This is made of polythene strips and is very light but stronger and more managable than fleece. I used it as frost protection for potatoes and other crops and then later draped over cabbage and calabrese against butterflies. It is tough enough to bury the edges and take off and on.

[BostonInbred]

I use orange Debris Netting, has holes about 1mm x 1mm, pretty cheap to buy, like £17 for 2m x 50m roll

Im trying Nantes F1 carrots in large bendy tubs, in a 50/50 mix of raw peat and dried blended farm manure plus two cups of wood ash per tub to counteract the acidity of the raw peat. Ima feed them on liquid growmore, and we'll see how it works out.

[8doubles]

Try the bucket method. I did it with great success last year!
Fresh compost in a bucket, water now and then. Bucket full of fresh veg and no fly's!

Got to agree , any container from a bucket size upwards put in lots of seed and place polythene over the top till they germinate.

If you do this you can get baby carrots (3/4 by 4"long) solid from side to side of the container and no carrot fly.

[Jonajo]

I went for the overly cautious carrot fly deterrent last year for my main summer crop and my winter carrots. ie) sowed seed,  put small sticks/broken bamboo canes around the corners and down the edges and simply covered with fleece, and tagged down the fleece with tent pegs - the canes were just to keep a bit of space between the soil and the fleece. Probably not needed at the time of sowing but hey, I felt like it!

So they germinated, I thinned, replaced the fleece and just let them grow - watering and weeding now and then. But the fleece stayed on until they were ready to harvest. I thought there would be light issues and stunted growth with the fleece staying on but experimentation is fun!!

And no carrot fly, and long rooted carrots.

Which is less than can be said on the carrots I had planted with no protection on another part of the plot previously. And when I put a traditional border around the carrots another time.....not much success there either!!

[savbo]

Fleece is easily damaged by the wind whereas enviromesh is a woven material that is much stronger,if you look after it you should get years out of it.Its a bit of an outlay but if you intend to be growing for years worth it.

Guess what I've just found in the shed we just inherited with the new plot... what appears to be a 4.5m x 2m piece of enviromesh - cut into 2 but that's easily remedied with some sewing.

if it's not enviromesh then someones had some very heavy nylon net curains....