Kitchen Garden Forum

I am thinking of trying the nematode mixture "Grow your Own" this year, specifically against carrot root fly because last year, in spite of using fleece and very fine netting around and over the carrots, we did have some CRF damage. The carrots grew well (I think they liked the wet weather!) but the later ones were certainly attacked by CRF. So, I wondered if the little beasts are already in this year's growing area, they might be killed off before they can do any damage. Anybody got any experience of these nematodes?

Not having got any replies, I assume nobody has ever used these nematodes - so I went and bought some and applied them today. It will be interesting to see if our carrots, parsnips, Hamburg parsley and celeriac will be blemish-free this year!!

Dear Monika, i hope they work for you, and would be very interested in the results later in the year.

As requested by OH in June, here are my thoughts about using the nematode "Grow You Own":

Our carrots, parsnips and Hamburg parsley were surrounded and covered by a screen of fleece and micromesh but, unfortunately, this was slightly damaged by strong winds and I was sure the carrot root fly had got in, hence the use of the nematode and I think IT HAS WORKED! There have been just a few small CRF holes in a small number of carrots, but on the whole, it's been very successful. So I will certainly use them again next year.

Good to know it worked Monika. I've not tried it but noticed a bit of rootfly damage on one or two of my carrots despite them being covered with enviromesh. They must have found a hole somewhere. So it might be worth a try.

Dear Monika, thank you for following up on your topics. A little question though, do you remember roughly how much it cost, and what area the prduct covered?

Glad you have had some good carrots. as it's so annoying when they have CRF.

I started pulling my Autumn King carrots a week ago and found them almost totally free of CRF! . No nemotodes, fleece or anything else. Perhaps a bad year for CRF ( but good for us)?

I think this is always the problem with biological controls, that is knowing whether they have actually worked or whether conditions were unfavourable for the pests. Very difficult to do proper controlled experiments the in the field as opposed to the lab.

OH, I can't remember at all how much they cost (I ordered them by 'one click' via Amazon). and used them on the carrot/parsnip/Hamburg parsley bed which is about 5' x 8' and also on a separate smaller bed with celeriac.

It could, of course, just been the lack of CRF this year (after the very low winter temperatures?) but I shan't take the risk next year and use them anyway.

Dear Monika, never mind, i'm sure they won't be that dear, and thank you for the areas covered.

I used Nemaslug on my potatoes this year to give it a go. Now, I know my heavy clay is said not to be the ideal circumstance for them (*). I think perhaps I might convince myself there were silghtly more undamaged tubers, but not by a degree that would be statistically significant in a proper trial. And the undamaged potatoes are probably amongst the most expensive in the world ...

(*) It is rather inconvenient that Nemaslug does not perform at it's best on heavy soil, since this is where you have the biggest problem. A treatment that solves a problem for those who don't actually have it ?