Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: gwynleg on April 12, 2019, 08:17:35
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Hi. I’ve just read that celeriac can be affecting by carrot root fly and didn’t know that before. I haven’t grown celeriac a lot but when I have, I haven’t covered them and they didn’t seem to be attacked. What experience do others have of this please? It seems as though everything on the plot needs covering!
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Never been a problem for me. :wave:
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A friend of mine on the next nearest group of allotments gets damage on celeriac and oca that I don't get on mine - but we both get carrot fly. He's only 3km away.
The damage looks similar but the tunnels don't wander as randomly as carrot fly. It's obviously a soil pest.
His problem is so great that we do a bit of swapping - I get a range of stuff in exchange for celeriac & oca - including artichokes!
Cheers.
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here on the sunshine coast we are plagued with root fly i grow carrots in pots and given up on celeriac i think its the sandy soil and very little frost and long hot summers this being the driest part of the country with around 20 inches of rain a year and last year it was around 16 inches as even now we have had very little rain 1/2 inch in the last 5 weeks and none forcast for the next 2 weeks so its not the best climate for root crops but the pests seem to love it
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Fear to say it but not troubled by cabbage root fly nor carrot fly here in N E Hampshire, plenty of wireworm, leatherjackets and bl***y voles however. Traps for all three!!
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Never had a carrot fly attack on my celeriac.
Over the years I have found that barrier methods are very effective in reducing damage to carrots. To such a degree that they are used by many plot holders on my site.
I think this has produced a virtuous spiral, with fewer and fewer flies for the following generation, they seem much less of a problem than they were some years back. Then, it as well nigh impossible to grow carrots unprotected without the crop being completely ruined. Things seem much better these days. Very encouraging to have a pest control option that doesn't involve insecticide and that works.
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Never had a carrot fly attack on my celeriac.
Over the years I have found that barrier methods are very effective in reducing damage to carrots. To such a degree that they are used by many plot holders on my site.
I think this has produced a virtuous spiral, with fewer and fewer flies for the following generation, they seem much less of a problem than they were some years back. Then, it as well nigh impossible to grow carrots unprotected without the crop being completely ruined. Things seem much better these days. Very encouraging to have a pest control option that doesn't involve insecticide and that works.
Are you sure the local farmers haven't started growing carrots? Most will carpet-bomb the soil with insecticide and create a lure-and-kill-zone for miles around...
On that subject, has anyone tried covering the carrots with treated mosquito net? It might kill them as they try to get in - killing far more with far less insecticide (with none of it on the plants themselves) - almost worth bruising the carrot leaves a bit to get more of the buggers.
Cheers.
PS Red & purple carrots get much more damage on my plot - so I grow those in builders bags of soil & rotted woodchip - 3/4 full as the fly don't go that high. There's not enough space for orange ones so I rely heavily on shortie types that are picked before the maggots have much time. Yellow ones do OK in the ground.
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Are you sure the local farmers haven't started growing carrots? Most will carpet-bomb the soil with insecticide and create a lure-and-kill-zone for miles around...
Possible, but I'm not in a carrot growing area and I have never seen any being farmed locally. Carrot growing is mostly in counties east of here especially the fens. A lot of the farming here is mixed arable, with some cereals, high levels of oil seed rape and fodder crops like field beans and maize for silage that will feed cattle rather than humans. Cannot rule it out of course.
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Grew Celeriac successfully for the first time last year, in a raised bed next to the carrots without issue, some fly on the carrots (no mesh) but none in the celeriac... perhaps they only go for it as a second choice...
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Thanks all. I think I might give it a go without putting mesh over..... living
dangerously
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All the cow parsley around here doesn't help either.
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All the cow parsley around here doesn't help either.
I'd be grateful for more explanation. I know that cow parsley is sometimes called wild carrot, but I think this a misnomer and actually the plant is only distantly related to carrots. Is there something Ielse going on?
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Cow parsley is related to carrots.
See https://www.brc.ac.uk/dbif/invertebratesresults.aspx?insectid=7228
which shows the hosts for carrot root fly.
Psila rosae = carrot root fly
Daucus carota subspecies sativus = carrot
Anthriscus sylvestris = cow parsley
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Cow parsley is related to carrots.
See https://www.brc.ac.uk/dbif/invertebratesresults.aspx?insectid=7228
which shows the hosts for carrot root fly.
Psila rosae = carrot root fly
Daucus carota subspecies sativus = carrot
Anthriscus sylvestris = cow parsley
Thank you. A very interesting reference. Fascinating to learn that the range of plant species that can act as a host to this pest is astonishingly wide and varied. Parsnips, oil seed rape, celeriac, carrots of course, endives, chicory, radicchio, escarole, celery, cabbage, broccoli, kale and all sorts of other brassicas, cow parsley, lovage, beet and chard, even potatoes and hemlock and dozens more that I did not recognise.
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Cow parsley is related to carrots.
See https://www.brc.ac.uk/dbif/invertebratesresults.aspx?insectid=7228
which shows the hosts for carrot root fly.
Psila rosae = carrot root fly
Daucus carota subspecies sativus = carrot
Anthriscus sylvestris = cow parsley
On reflection, I still think I am not fully understanding this.
Of all the hosts, other than carrots, why is cow parsley an especial problem?
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Presumably because it is very widespread in distribution, and, unlike most planted crops, is not harvested, allowing the maggots to go 'full cycle'.
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My allotment neighbour has left a pile of manky old carrots by the path.