Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: George the Pigman on May 21, 2019, 10:29:37
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I've got a line of carrot seedlings coming up. They are only very small as yet and are not even at the true leaf stage.
When would you suggest covering them with fleece to stop carrot root fly.
I don't tend to do it after sowing as one year the seedlings were gobbled up by slugs whilst they were under the fleece.
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The adult flies emerge in early June and lay their eggs in the soil near the carrots, a second generation of adults often appear in August.
Watering in a Jeyes fluid solution into the soil at this stage will buy you time!
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/C/Carrot%20fly/Carrot%20Fly.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/C/Carrot%20fly/Carrot%20Fly.htm)
Hope this helps.
ps I just sowed my seed this morning and as I still had some seed dressing left I sprinkled this along the row after sowing.
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Mine are in and covered - well not covered as I build a frame round the bed and staple netting to it. Stops foxes and squirrels from digging in them..
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I have a net the full width of my allotment that is big enough for me to get in on all fours and I am 70 this year. It is weighed down with bricks on each side but I put a plastic 8" sheet under the sides of the net to prevent weeds growing through and ruining it. The net is supported by blue water pipe and reinforced by canes attached by cable ties. I put the net up 2 weeks before I sow . It takes me a couple of hours to sow 6 rows of various varieties . I then weed and single out a few weeks later. I never get carrot fly . I have tried barriers and smaller nets where you have to lift the sides to weed and have on each occasion got the fly. You need to cover as soon as you sow the seeds or else they will be in. Some of my fellow allotment holders just lay fleece on top of the rows but as the carrots grow they lift the fleece off the ground and the fly is in.
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I cover as soon as I sow. Got fed up with fleece and anything fiddly to remove and put back, so I made my own easily removable tunnels with hoops and mesh - bought the hoops and a bit more mesh than I needed, cut out and hemmed two "ends" using a hoop as a template and stitched them to the main fabric. Sow the carrots, put the hoops along the row, fit the tunnel on top and peg it down, easily watered and easy to pull a few carrots and put back. Got the idea when I saw a similar piece of kit in a catalogue at a horrendous price.