carrot fly

[oubykh]

This  has been my first year with carrots and the first crop was fantastic.
To protect them from carrot fly i covered them with fleece completly with small barrier also from discarded laminate flooring and this seems to have done the trick.

Does anyone know how long they should stay covered for protection or does the risk of carrot fly stay until harvest :(??

[oubykh]

[tim]

Why tempt fate? Ours will be on till the autumn. = Tim

[Wicker]

Same here, oubykh we leave them covered (enviromesh) until end of season. don't feel it's worth taking the risk.  "they" say that carrot fly are at their worst in June and again in August - but who knows!!

[oubykh]

thanks for the advice guys.

also interesting to note what protection you use Wicker ( it was to be my follow up question today!), as mentioned i used fleece but i dont think it was particularly siuted to the job as it tore easily in the strong winds we had recently.
I would like to know if you totally cover the crop or is it just a high barrier around the edges? i read that carrot fly only fly along the ground at a certain height so if its high enough need i cover the top as well?

[sandersj89]

I think this idea of carrot fly only flying so high is a bit of a red herring. The flies themself are small, just a few millimeters long so possibly in perfectly still conditions they struggle to fly very high.

However with wind and air currents they can be swept up higher as they are very light.

Therefore I tend to cover my carrots. I use fleece and wire hoops to support it every 2 metres. Over each hoop I tie a piece of string to keep the fleece under control and also place clods of earth along the edges to keep it in contact with the ground.

I also use environmesh as this is easier to handle, it is more expensive though.

HTH

Jerry

[tim]

Fleece is good for 3-4 years, I find. Better for warmth than mesh.
Mesh is very much more expensive but almost indestructible. Only fine mesh copes with flea beetle etc. And it's only in cut sizes.
Other brownie points for mesh are -
1. You can see through it.
2. In heavy rain, it does not get sogged down onto the plants.
3. Any watering goes straight through to the plants. = Tim

[Wicker]

Hi oubykh, we make a wooden frame and cover the lot this is topped off with a flat chicken wire frame that sits on top to keep the foxes off! (sounds complicated but isn't and we have used it for years)  Our lottie neiughbour has smaller beds covered by "tunnels" made of enviromesh over hoops made of plastic piping fixed into the ground by wooden stakes forced in at the ends of the piping - it's very successful and easily made.

[tim]

We would need a very big frame!!  = Tim

[Wicker]

Tim, our carrot bed is about 12' x 10' has a narrow path up the middle and usually 8 rows of carrots.  Frame is really in two sections but cover goes over whole bed and wire tops are in 3 sections so they can be lifted off.  We used to have lots of trouble with foxes jumping on/thru fleece and mesh flattening carrots. Yours does look about double that size I think!

[tim]

Foxes - yes - a pain - & smelly!

And yes - that plot's 45'x24'. And not carrots. My point being that, foxes apart, you don't need frames. From birth to maturity. = Tim