On Oct 4, 2:32*pm, "Bill Grey" wrote:
"Bob Hobden" wrote in message

...





"Bertie Doe" *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/d...e/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

Yes, root Fly. We grow ours in an old 50 gal water tank, this does the
same as the barrier method, the flies don't like flying upwards and keep
near the ground, but was cheaper as we had the old tank and it can be used
permanently. Despite this we have had a bit of root fly on occasion when
the tank was near other stuff but this year when out on it's own none at
all. We also only planted "Flyaway" and Resistafly", so a double barrelled
approach this year that worked.
Decided to give up growing my own seed Chertsey Carrots.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK .

A large "Country" house near brecon grow veg. for sale to local restaurants
The owner planted a "barrier plant" round her carrot plot for the very
purpose of stopping carrot fly getting at her carrots. *This was the first
time I'd heard of such a thing.

I'm not sure what the barrier comprised.
-

Tagetes. A sort of marigold I think. Dunno how well it works.