Carrot Spacing

[Joe11]

Hi, my carrots have started to show above ground now but i have foolishly lost the packet that the seeds came in and hence no instructions lol. Well what i need to know is when do i start thinning them out and how much room do i leave between each carrot?

They are main crop carrots but forgot what type.

Thanks
Joe

[Joe11]

[okra]

I would give them another couple of weeks and then space to 4"

[Rohaise]

Okra ...I hope you dont mind another carroty question from a beginner?
         This barrier that we are supposed to put up all around the carrots....how high does it have to be..and how do I go about rigging it up .please ?   Rohaise    :)

[allaboutliverpool]

Joe, you can leave a few carrots thinned to half an inch for litte early ones and the ones that you want for man-sized meals to 4inches.

Rohaise, it is supposed to be something as fine as fleece 18inches high and supported on canes or similar. I am not convinced and if you make a framework of canes (you can buy rubber ball things with holes to join the corners, and cover the whole lot with fleece.

[okra]

Ask other plot holders if carrot fly is a problem on your site, I have never used barriers and have never had a problem.  

[tim]

Rather than going to the trouble of erecting a barrier, why not just chuck the fleece over the bed??
Far more effective.

[manicscousers]

we leave a row of carrots so's we get little finger carrots, thin them gradually, main crop we thin to 3 tp 4"    :)
we cover the whole lot with fleece

[Rohaise]

Oh!  you are there ! Thanks for your replies !  well I already have some fleece and some old canes ,so all I will need to buy are those rubber ball things ,which I think I have seen in the adverts in the garden mags.  I just hope it wont all blow away in the wind !   Are those pesky carrot flies OUT yet ?  Rohaise x

[davyw1]

A thought.  If the carrot fly is only supposed to get no higher than 18", how does it get over my tin sheeted fence.

[Rohaise]

Manicscousers and Tim ,Thankyou for repies which came whilst poking out my last posting (with one finger as I do !)   ...SO...just lay the fleece over the ground and weight it down with bricks or something ?   Rohaise

[Rohaise]

A thought.  If the carrot fly is only supposed to get no higher than 18", how does it get over my tin sheeted fence.

Hallo DavyW1  , so you are saying the barrier doesn,t have to be fleece ?    and may not work anyway ?  ::)    Rohaise

[allaboutliverpool]

Another tip I was given was to draw a little soil up over the tops of the roots as the fly likes to lay its eggs right at the base of the leaves.
If it cannot get there it does not bother and flies off at a height of 12 inches except where it meets a corrugated tin sheet where it obviously finds a thermal and paraglides over it!

[davyw1]

A thought.  If the carrot fly is only supposed to get no higher than 18", how does it get over my tin sheeted fence.

Hallo DavyW1  , so you are saying the barrier doesn,t have to be fleece ?    and may not work anyway ?  ::)    Rohaise

What i am saying is that i have 4 foot tin sheeting round my garden, so if the carrot fly only get 18" above the ground how does it get in my garden.

[Rohaise]

       ;D   Thanks all ....you,re all helping me learn so much ! Rohaise x

[autumn leaf]

In an attempt to defeat the carrot fly I decided to try sowing my carrots with flowers this year such as nigella, godetia and cornflower.  I carefully prepared a seed bed and duly sowed it.  The idea being that the flowers would confuse the carrot fly but would die off before the carrots thus providing a colourful bed etc etc.  What the books didn't count on was moles!  Went down to have a look this evening and found great molehills in my nicely prepared bed.  The little b***er had even had a field day in my beetroot planting.  Any advice, anyone? :-[ ???

[Jeannine]

If I grow my carrotts on flat ground I get the pest if I grow in a foot high raised bed I don't!! XX Jeannine

[miniroots]

I've heard interplanting with onions puts the pests off??  Does this work?

[gibbygib]

I went for a variety called "Flyaway" last year and planted them next to a row of Early Nantes.  They got a few of the earlies but the maincrop where untouched.

[Tee Gee]

A thought.  If the carrot fly is only supposed to get no higher than 18", how does it get over my tin sheeted fence.

My theory is they are carried over the barrier by thermal currents.

Have you ever watched dandelion seed flutter about when there doesn't appear to be a breath of wind.

Or sat in your easy chair and watched house dust float around in a beam of sunshine :o

This is how I cover mine;

note; the gap at the end is staged to show the carrots growing under the fleece!

[powerspade]

Carrot fly can smell a carrot over ten miles away, when you thin them draw up soil around the neck of the carrots so that the little blighter's cannot get to the neck cos thats where they lay their eggs. Any carrot that gets affected pull and burn