On Wed, 12 May 2004 18:28:46 +0100, "Brian"
wrote:

I fear that avoiding 'carrot fly' is difficult to impossible. Never cover
the foliage. A little banking up seems to help as does NOT thinning. Try not
to expose the top, or any part, of the root. Personally, I gave up growing
to maturity and pulled them all as 'baby carrots' rather than use various
chemicals. They froze well.
Commercially there are very effective chemicals but I would rather avoid
them~~but with no knowledge that they
are harmful.

The theory behind 'earthing up' carrots is that the carrot root fly
likes to lay its eggs as close as possible to the root - so that when
the larvae hatch they can get munching without delay.
Putting a couple of extra inches of soil over the root head stop the
little buggers from getting at the important bit.

A chap on the Gardener's World allotment feature last year was using
this method, evidently with success.


Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk