Simple solution to carrot fly ....

AlanS

Not tried this yet, but I'm going to give it a go this year.

I was told this tip by one of the gardeners at Garden Organic at Ryton.

There are a number of tips to avoid carrot fly .... plant early, plant late, put a barrier round your carrots etc, but he had a much simpler tip and said he'd never been bothered with carrot fly since adopting it.

Simply earth up your carrots like you would potatoes. Don't leave any of the carrot top exposed above the soil. Draw up the soil over the carrots, so that you can only see the foliage.

choille

I shall certainly be trying this as it's always a problem.

Lotus-eater

Also it stops your carrots going green and bitter. I don't think this works, because I'm sure I've had carrots affected by fly that have been all underground.
But I am going to try it this year and hope that it does work.

Rummer

Grow them in tubs it is too high for the carrot flies to reach.

choille

When my poly-tunnel was on the go I never got carrot fly in there.
I have an elderly, but very fit neighbour who has a raised box thing that he used as a cold frame. He planted carrots in that last year & didn't get fly - now if you plant above a certain height off the ground you won't get it, but I don't have the energy to make anything else at the moment.
I have idly thought of filling old drums with soil & using those, but again something I haven't gotten round to this year.
A good few years back I used tyre towers to grow tatties in - very successfully I may add - suppose I could do that for carrots..............

choille

Hi Rummer - great minds think alike!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

I plant in tubs and never have had carrot fly...I think its 18" that is as high as carrot flies can fly..so even "windbreaks" of plastic sheeting etc are supposed to deter them. I also plant spring onions in a pot by the side of the carrots as the smell disguises the carrot smell.

retrocircles

Rummer wrote: »

Grow them in tubs it is too high for the carrot flies to reach.

This is exactly what I'm doing this year!

Larumbelle

I grow my carrots in alternate rows with onions and shallots. The idea is that the onions make it harder for the carrot flies to smell out the carrots, and the carrots make it harder for the onion flies to smell out the onions. Could be coincidence, but I've never been bothered by either pest!

choille

I do that every year, but it's not 100% effective as I still get some.

I don't thin my carrots though & I think that helps - I just try to sow them thin & I don't weed between them either.

Larumbelle

When I thin mine I cut the tops off them rather than pulling them out, party so as not to disturb the roots but also because any damage alerts the flies.