The T & M vegetable catalogue arrived yesterday, and I see the they are pushing the fly resistant carrot varieties.
From my experience they are useless and I wrote and told them so. I got the usual clap trap reply full of "management speak" that said nothing.
I really believe that the seed firms should not be pushing these. They're not fit for the purpose and in my opinion they contravene the Sale of Goods act. But then, they'll listen to a customer, won't they?
Peter
Like you say, it's your opinion and other people say they work. Who knows? There are so many variables.
But I feel the same about blight resistance: blight is a disease thats changing every year and if you get a bad year, it will wipe out your tomatoes which every variety they are.
Personally, I think that the plant breeders have been forced down this route by the desire of gardeners to be organic. There was a time when you dusted your carrot beds with lindane powder and had no problems with the flies. The good old days eh? Now it's either fleece or try a resistant strain. You pays your money, etc.
White and yellow carrot varieties are far less prone to carrot fly attacks. The Organic Catalogue has both. Maybe worth a try? Otherwise they need to be grown in a tall fleece tunnel or with a 3ft tall screen around them. I have read about good success growing them in an old bath tub ;D
For the sake of 99p with a £5 voucher I am giving them a go.Will report back later in the year.
Yellow carrots are ok but I cannot find my way to liking white ones.
The advantage of growing older yellow kinds like Yellowstone is that they are resistant by chance - they haven't been bred for resistance - they have been bred for flavour.
They may not be quite as resistant as the new ones but why bother growing something that has been bred to look like a carrot but hasn't got much more flavour than a potato?
Use barrier methods with yellowstone and you should get reasonable amounts of clean roots. I'm going to try the builders bag method if I can scrape enough soil together.
Cheers.
I think the barrier and elevation system is the way to go, I had carrots in pots next to carrots in the flat, the pots are only 15" tall or so but they had less than half the damage of the ones in the flat...
chrisc