On my plot and others on the site we have an odd problem with carrots and to a lesser extent with parsnips.
The leaves are all browning, going crispy and dying off. It isn't carrot fly as we have dug some up and they are clean - small but clean.
It appears that they are staring to regrow leaves from the base.
My good friend Mike, who has been growing carrots for 40 years (as a farmer and allotmenteer), swears he has never seen anything like it.
Apologies for the quality of the pic..
(http://i.imgur.com/oJ1Opgr.jpg)
Any ideas??
umm..that does look odd...only thing that does come to my mind is weak solution of weedkiller or other chemical that would have enough strength to kill off the greenery but as the roots are not affected the new growth would still appear and be 'distorted' :dontknow:
Have you got communal water tanks or something similar that could have somehow got contaminated? Is there any other than carrots and parnips that are showing 'funny' growth?
Or could you think any other way that chemical 'accident' could have happened?
Have you got 'carrot competition' on your site by any chance?...just though about the things that was happening in 'allotment wars' program in telly other week...
There is caterpillar which goes for carrots. They are quite large and strip the carrot leaves very quickly.
We do have communal tanks but his and mine are different and it seems the whole site is affected.
I did think of pests but the leaves brown and visibly die back - and the way it moves through a bed looks like a disease or fungal infection.
The good news is that the carrots are OK - not good but OK..
The other thought we had was that thye carrots suddenly went into winter mode and are now growing as they think it is next year but we havent had a cold spell really.Or maybe something to do with the extended dry period??
QuoteThe other thought we had was that thye carrots suddenly went into winter mode
But then they would not grow lot of new leaves...they would go almost straight away to seed.
That's why we weren't too sure if the regrowth is a good thing or not..
I had several with reddish leaves, as I pulled them up the carrots were clean - no carrot fly -, but their shoulders were nibbled by something, possibly my voles again. Or it might be slugs? Never had this sort of damage, but quite a lot this year.
We have the same all over our allotments. It is due to carrot willow aphid which attacks in warm dry summers on both parsnips and carrots, this pest transmits the motley dwarf virus. You may be able to find a very tiny caterpillar on some of the leaves- it is not very easy to see and probably depends at what stage you examine the leaves.
On speaking to one of our allotmenteers who has had an allotment for sometime said until recently has never seen this but over the last few years has been getting worse. I personally have had an allotment on this site for 9 years and this is the first time I have seen it on my parsnips but not carrots as they are covered in enviromesh. There is nothing you can do once have it but something like environmesh hopefully would prevent it.
Our carrots are the same dried up brown tops, but the carrots ok not very big, the carrots that were covered up with builders netting are fine nice green tops! never seen this before ?could it be the heat or not enough water?
Quote from: Lady of the Land on August 19, 2013, 22:16:05
We have the same all over our allotments. It is due to carrot willow aphid which attacks in warm dry summers on both parsnips and carrots, this pest transmits the motley dwarf virus. You may be able to find a very tiny caterpillar on some of the leaves- it is not very easy to see and probably depends at what stage you examine the leaves.
Thanks Ill check for this - but my friends carrots are so heavily protected against the fly that I cant see how they can get in! Mesh, net curtains and plastic sheeting all the way. It is certainly a possibility though - so cheers for the info.
I go with the cattarplliers if you lift the leves you will no doubt find some on the top of the soil.