Kitchen Garden Forum

Left the plot Sat. Everything OK. Just been down, the leaves on my parsnips are 40% brown. Any idea's.

Someone spraying weedkiller close by? Fungus wouldn't be that quick. Is it just the parsnips or anything close?

MW

Carrots are starting to loo sorry for themselves.

O dear, is accidental damage possible? Plot next door or anything? Or could it be malicious?

MW

Dear Shallot man,
dig one or two up and look for carrot root fly; it affects both.
Regards Sally Wright.

Mine too! They were also covered in wee black beetles as well - I've desperately been trying to post a picture I took and can't figure out how to do it now that Photobucket have taken off their handy "post to forum" button

Re my problem. A fellow plot holder with better eyesight found masses of small [1/8th of an inch or less ] sorry still imperial.white almost translucent creatures ,wouldn't call them caterpillars. Move a bit faster. The puzzling thing is the parsnip leaf almost goes brown within a day or so. Anyway have treated them to a good spray. Will remove all brown leaves in the morning, then maybe another spray for good luck. Had the plot for thirty years now. Never seen the likes before. Proves one is always learning. Would like to know what the little pestie is though.

Shallot Man wrote:Re my problem. A fellow plot holder with better eyesight found masses of small [1/8th of an inch or less ] sorry still imperial.white almost translucent creatures ,wouldn't call them caterpillars.

Maggots.

Shallot Man wrote:Would like to know what the little pestie is though.

Carrot fly already.

Had a brain wave. Having grown Parsnips without any problems for more years than I care to remember. I thought what did I do different this year. Then it hit me. I grew them from a seed tape. Brought back memories when during the last War. When dad was wallpapering, my job [ I always had the best jobs ]was to make up wallpaper paste with flour and water. When stripping the old paper, we use to find very small what we called silver fish. I think that this was in the seed tape. [After all they cannot use fungicidal paste can they ! ] Your thoughts please.

I know someone who has had what he thinks are small white butterfly caterpillars devastate his carrot topsthis year

Dear Shallotman,
methinks it is celery leaf miner (aka celery fly) now I have had time to think about it. If you have a bad infection then you can spray for them. The main thing is to plant them next year under fleece somewhere far away from their usual haunts as the pupa overwinter in the soil.
Regards Sally Wright.

Thank you sally.