Topic: advice please

[diggerrick]

i have a couple of problems i am not sure about,i have a white powdery substance on the leaves of my peas is this normal ? also on my carrots i have some small dark holes around the roots, is this carrot fly ? cheers rick  ???

[goodlife]

First one is powdery mildew..common in this time of year when the soil around the roots is getting dry. There is no real cure for now..giving through soak can slow the spreading down. But other than that  make best of the crop what you can.
And the second one..sounds very much like carrot fly..again..once your carrots have been attacked..not much to do..other than start using your carrots and cut out the bits that have been attacked, rest of the carrot is fine to use.
Next year you have to start thinking the prevention of the carrot fly damage..perharps growing the carrots under insect barrier mesh..works for me and I find it really easy to use.

[diggerrick]

First one is powdery mildew..common in this time of year when the soil around the roots is getting dry. There is no real cure for now..giving through soak can slow the spreading down. But other than that  make best of the crop what you can.
And the second one..sounds very much like carrot fly..again..once your carrots have been attacked..not much to do..other than start using your carrots and cut out the bits that have been attacked, rest of the carrot is fine to use.
Next year you have to start thinking the prevention of the carrot fly damage..perharps growing the carrots under insect barrier mesh..works for me and I find it really easy to use.

thanks goodlife  :)

[delboy]

I am with Goodlife on this.

Until this year I persisted in growing carrots without insect mesh. Almost gave up on carrots, but this year I discovered Gardening-Naturally and Harrod Horticultural meshes.

I would use mesh that is 2.5 or 3 metres wide, as it allows it to be well tucked into the earth or weighed down with heavy timber. The 2m wide one had gaps - and guess what happened...