Simple solution to carrot fly ....

choille

I'm not sure when the flies are active - summer months July, August? I suppose I could weed outwith that time.

dalesman55

This tip came from the BBC DIG IN site.

"This pest is drawn to the Carrots by the smell of crushed foilage,so reduce the risk of attack by thinning plants in the evening on a still day,removing any thinnings and watering afterwards. Erecting a wind-break style around a crop will also help deter the pests"

May be worth trying this.

nopot2pin

silvercharming wrote: »

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!

My dad said this to me the other day

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Has anyone tried these http://www.alanromans.com/p-1803-carrot-flyaway-f1.aspx ? I've ordered some as I think its worth a pop at 50p and i was ordering other stuff too. I'll let you know how it works.

lekale

Hi there I wonder if anyone can help? I have lurked on these forums for a while but never posted but after getting inspired by you all I have planted some veg and plants. I don't have a garden so everything is in containers.

My problem is as follows. Yesterday I planted some carrot seeds in a container. Within about ten minutes we saw some brown flies settling on the top but didn't think anything of it. This morning I have been reading through threads and saw one mention carrot fly. I looked it up and it looks a lot like the flies that are around my carrot container. Everything I read talks about them being a problem when the seedlings have grown but mine are still seeds. Is my crop ruined already? If not shall I try some of the preventative measures found on here?

Sorry I am a complete novice at this and am very worried about my container garden!

Lotus-eater

Although I am not really genned up on carrot fly, I just live with it and have to cut some bits out of carrots, but that's no great loss, I only lose about 5% of the crop and for that, I am not going to bother doing anything about it.
But until your carrots start growing and making the carroty smell, then you are fine.
This is some advice for you http://archive.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/2000/4/20/247172.html

Basically if you want perfect carrots, either grow under a barrier of some sort, place a barrier around the carrot patch, so the fly can't fly over it. Grow onions in rows next to the carrots, spray with garlic mixture, or just be lazy like me and put up with the odd hole.

lekale

Thanks lotus-eater, I will check out the link you posted.

Zazen999

AlanS wrote: »

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.

That's Andy at GO? I had the same advice from him. I grow coriander with mine and whilst it is growing don't get carrot fly at all. i've not been able to try the earthing up method but will be using it this year.

tim_n

in the ground I get carrot fly
in the compost bin (3ft up) I don't.

I grow my carrots in the compost bins now, the compost goes in until the top 1ft, then I just fill up with some commercial compost and water. Hey presto, carrots without holes!

Then I just mix the exhausted compost with a bit of fish blood and bone and dig it into the compost underneath. If I can be bothered that is.