Kitchen Garden Forum

Is it safe now to remove the insect netting from my carrot bed and if not when will the time be to be safe from carrot fly damage.
Regards Brenjon

I never remove it until I clear the crop.

I'm the same as Geoff.

Hi,
I am the same as there can be several generations of adult fly each year.
Hilary

The wisdom is that late-sown carrots can avoid the carrot-fly season. I've tried that with some success, but this year I acquired a large amount of enviromesh and that has done the trick; I have the best carrots ever. I'd keep the netting on.

Thanks for all the replies. The reason I asked is that the foilage under the netting is getting quite tall and slimy at the bottom and i think it would perhaps be better if i was able to reduce it someway. What do you think?
Regards Brenjon

Hi Brenjon, have you had a lot of rain? My mother grew carrots successfully with no fleece , just a raised bed with a barrier around the carrots over a certain height, carrot fly apparently fly quite low, One method is to use a frame around the bed which is about 28" tall made of stakes and polythene sheeting.
Another way way is to companion plant, grow two rows of onions to one of carrots, the smell of the onions confuses the fly which then goes off to lay its eggs elsewhere.
Also there are a couple of fly resistent varieties

WE construct a framework from bamboo so that the enviromesh is held above the foliage - it just bends at the top it it grows high. See http://glallotments.blogspot.com/2010/08/judgement-day-for-our-carrots.html

Mine's much more Heath-Robinsonised than yours,Glalotments, which is very neat. I've used rusted Multigrow frames and bits of wood. But really, it doesn't matter if the enviromesh is touchingthe carrots or whatever is underneath; the growth just pushes it up and it isn't heavy enough to damage the foliage underneath it.

Apparently the good old carrot fly can only see straight lines , so try mixing the carrot seed with spring onion seed and sow in a zig zag line.Worked for me for a few years.