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hi,
   I tried to grow carrots last year but failed miserably.
This year i have planted tubes,3" in diameter, 18" long and filled them with fine compost.The plan is to get long, straight carrots which should also avoid the carrot fly.

what do you think,will they fail of fly?

I think it will work, but it seems a lot of effort. If you make yourself a box  about 15 inches deep and as big as you want it and fill it with good soil and sand, carrots will grow well in it ,put it in legs if you can. I used to grow my carrots in an old cucumber frame that we filled to 6 inches from the top with soil,  we never got the dreaded fly, we used the same bed for 9 years with no trouble. They say that the fly doesn't fly higher that 18 inches .

Once made your carrot bed will last along time. Parsnips went in there too.
XX Jeannine

I wish I could find the picture but I've seen some place where they had deep window boxes on the first and second floor windows and it was all carrots..... too high for the fly normally....

chrisc

Quote from: Jeannine on March 12, 2010, 23:11:45
I think it will work, but it seems a lot of effort. If you make yourself a box  about 15 inches deep and as big as you want it and fill it with good soil and sand, carrots will grow well in it ,put it in legs if you can. I used to grow my carrots in an old cucumber frame that we filled to 6 inches from the top with soil,  we never got the dreaded fly, we used the same bed for 9 years with no trouble. They say that the fly doesn't fly higher that 18 inches .

Once made your carrot bed will last along time. Parsnips went in there too.
XX Jeannine

Agree with Jeannines advice, this year I will also have a prepared bed for carrots and parsnips with plenty of sharp sand added with chives growing between the rows hoping to prevent carrot fly, :)

I now grow all my ca rots in bins about 3ft tall. I fill the bottom with polystyrene lay loads of newspaper then fill with whatever compost mixed with a bit of sharp sand. 3 bins does family of 3 and some of the neighbours most of the year.

Yes, never had any success with carrots until I started growing them in dustbins. Filled them about three quarters full with old soil/turf, then better soil/compost in the top. I wasamazed with the results. Was thinkingof trying pop-up bins this year as someone suggested them for spuds.

QuoteThey say that the fly doesn't fly higher that 18 inches .

I think if it is windy they get blown higher than this.  Several people on our site had 18 inch flleece barriers and they still got the fly.

Im trying Nantes F1 carrots in large bendy tubs, in a 50/50 mix of raw peat and dried blended farm manure plus two cups of wood ash per tub to counteract the acidity of the raw peat. Ima feed them on liquid growmore, and we'll see how it works out.

I planted my carrots last year with marigolds and onions, did one row of onions one of carrots and then had a row of marigolds at each end.

Dunno whether it was the onions or the marigolds but all of my onions and carrots survived and turned out lovely.