"Jim S" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:58:40 -0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

Chris wrote:
Last year our carrots were ruined by carrot root fly.

It was probably my fault - because I had been adding discarded
root-fly-infested bits of carrot to the compost heap - so that
probably went back into the earth.

Anyway - I want to do better this year.
Someone on Gardeners Question Time recommended growing carrots under
fleece for the whole of their lives.

But if you do that, what about harvesting the carrots?
Won't the flies get in then?
We harvest only half-a-dozen carrots at a time - just enough for a
meal - and so we can't dig up a whole fleece worth of carrots at one
go.
Any suggestions?

Probably entirely wrong as I don't grow them, but I seem to remember an
article on tv which said that carrot root fly flies very close to the
ground. To keep them off your carrots, all you had to do was erect a
polythene screen about 3 feet high around your plants (but not over
them).
When they hit this, the flies would just treat it as an obstacle and go
round it, never trying to fly over it.

As I recall, the barrier was more like 3" than 3', however I have a fair
success by growing them next to spring onions and leaving the bruised
onion
thinnings among the carrots, but never leaving carrot thinnings.
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
www.jimscott.co.uk

After watching "The Big Dig", on our site we have made compartments, raised
beds about 3 feet high and for the first time have had wonderful carrots. We
filled the beds with compost collected in bulh from our recycling centre and
for extra protection put a vertical length of fleece around the top of the
3' compartment.


--
Rowdens Reservoir Allotments Association
www.rraa.moonfruit.com