How To Deal With Carrot Root Fly.
Carrot root fly.
If you grow carrots you will at some stage have problems with carrot root fly.The flies home in on the smell of the carrots and lay their eggs in the young carrots.To prevent this,sow as thinly as possible by mixing the seed with silver sand before sowing in the seed drills.This avoids having to thin the carrots out.Normally,as they are thinned out the breaking of the stems creates a lot of scent attracting the carrot flies.
As the carrots grow earth them up to cover the carrot root top,as you do potatoes and finally use Enviromesh Insect Protection Netting as this helps stop the carrot flies reaching the carrots.
1. Plant if possible in an area you have not planted carrots before.
2. Sow as thinly as possible using silver sand to mix with the seed to space the seeds out to remove the need to thin out.
3. Sow french marigolds, Calendula and Tagetes seeds each side of the carrot row to help mask the smell of the carrots,this is a type of companion planting.
4. Use a Enviromesh Insect Protection Netting as soon as the carrots germinate
5. Harvest one row as a time,this might mean storing them in an outdoor clamp as its likely you will have to many to use in one go.Harvest late in the evening and after harvesting water with sprinklers to stop the scent traveling.
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