"Peter James" wrote ...

Once again I've embarked on the gardening "obstacle course" of
attempting to grow carrots.

Why is it that the professionals are allowed to use a chemical that
obviously deters carrot fly when the amateur is not?

Growing carrots has become a nightmare of obstacles, fleeces, fine
meshed nets and raised beds.

Here in Cornwall it is impossible to grow them without heavy protection
and it's got to the point where it's costing a small fortune in
materials just to grow a couple of rows, when chemical protection is
available but forbidden to us.

I used to use a dry powder that smelt of mothballs and was sprinkled in
the row, and that worked quite well. So well that the E.E.C. banned it.
Now that figures!


I don't think the EU banned it I think it is so expensive to test these
products these days that testing for amateur use is not cost effective so if
it's not tested it cannot be sold. That is why us amateurs have lost so many
chemicals and seem, on occasion, to be fighting a losing battle.

We grow our carrots in an old large GRP water tank, so the plants are well
off the ground and we can provide the sort of soil carrots like (unlike our
heavy clay/silt) adding sand to fine compost, we usually get a very good
crop. Unfortunately this year the compost I bought is total rubbish
(literally!) so I'm have to re-sow as the germination is terrible. We also
only use the fly resistant varieties, annoying but better than nothing.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK