Moonraker wrote:

On 04/10/2011 06:29, harry wrote:
On Oct 3, 6:04 pm, "Bertie wrote:
Yesterday I lifted my first carrots of the season. As you can see from the
photos, they are looking a bit sad. Something's been eating the Autumn
Kings:-http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd220/BertieDoe/IMG_2431.jpg
All carrots so far are undersized with a max length of 100mm / 4 ins. The
James Scarlett are prone to forking:-
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...e/IMG_2432.jpg

The soil is neutral ph, gritty and well drained. The seeds were sown
sparsely so no thinning required. At seedling stage, the soil was firmed in
nicely. All the allotment had cow manure in December and a granular general
fertilizer (twice) throughout the growing season. I can see why non of the
other allotments bother with carrots, but I don't like to give up on this
one. Any thoughts, remedies etc. Thanks
Bertie

Heavy manuring causes carrots to fork if too close to growing time.

They are probably small due to lack of water. However watering has to
be constant. No water followed by lots causes splitting of the roots.

The holes look like carrot fly. I don't have much problem where I am
but no-one else is growing carrots, I think that helps.

In days of yore there was stuff called "Bromophos" that totally
controlled carrot fly, it's now banned. Maybe growers can still get
it.
http://uk.ask.com/web?q=bromophos&se...rc=0&o=0&l=dir
Thanks for all the information on barriers, I'll try that next year.
What does not work for me is enviro fleece. It is impossible (nearly) to
keep them weeded, also the rain does not get through, plus when you
remove the cover to pull some the blighter slip in.
A barrier of fleece worked for me this year and last year. I also tried
to grow without a barrier the so-called carrot fly resistant varieties.
They were a total failure and I've written to the seed company pointing
out that in my opinion they are not fit for the purpose for which they
were sold and demanding my money back. I'm still waiting to hear on
that one.
Bromophoss was effective, so the EEC banned it. The commercial growers
use insecticide products not available to the amateurs.
On my allotment site this year, in North Cornwall, carrot fly was bad.
A lot of my neighbours said they won't bother again, but I will using a
barrier. Without it, forget it.

Peter