Big Carrot Reveal

[@angelad.8944]

Some tips to help you out are to plants a little later than you normally would. The fly will over winter in the soil so that is why you still have an issue. If you delay the planting a couple or a few weeks(say into the end of May/beginning of June for you I think), you will avoid that first generation. Eventually you will rid yourself of them as long as you continue to use the mesh covering. When things are looking good, you can go back to that early date of sowing. Inter planting with garlic or onions/leeks/chives, something stinky to mask the carrot smell would also be beneficial. My grandmother use to tie pieces of fabric to sticks and put drops of ammonia on them to deter all kinds of things. I glued a little plastic make shift umbrella to the top so the fabric wouldn't get rained on to help it last longer. Keeps little critters away too. You will have to add drops here and there over the season but that is easy enough. I have also used my own ground up powder of dehydrated chives to sprinkle on the carrots to make them smell different. Chives are plentiful and easy to grow so you can get a lot of powder from them. You could do flakes too. I put most of it around the base of the carrots to deter egg laying. Another tip is to grow the carrots in a somewhat raised bed since the flies will tend to go to lower ground and it helps the roots grow longer and stay out of too much rain. Of course, each person needs to pick and choose what works best for their conditions. Hopefully this will help with your defense plan for next season. 😊

[@REDGardens]

Later sowing could really help. I am planning to set up trap crops next year to try to figure out when the flies are actually around in this context. The ammonia track sounds interesting! I tried the interplanting option within my Polyculture garden for a couple of years, and it didn't seem to make any difference to the amount of damaged roots. I am thinking of trying again in a more controlled side experiment next year, but I am not willing to trust that companion planting option with the main crops any more.

[@michaelmcclafferty3346]

A very helpful and interesting video, thanks. I have grown about two square metres of carrots on large plastic tubs about 50cms high and had no problem with carrot fly. I realise that small scale is no use to you but I’m planning at least three more tubs next year. Planting late sounds like a good idea . Would a garlic or onion scented spray help if done at critical stages on ground level before putting the mesh on?

[@angelad.8944]

@@REDGardensdiatomaceous earth is your friend too but not sure how practical it would be on a large scale. I was thinking it might work just to get that first year batch under control and/or if targeted at the proper intervals.

[@REDGardens]

@@michaelmcclafferty3346 I was thinking of trying carrots in large bags and tubs as well, to see if the height makes a difference when there is so many carrot fly around. We used a garlic spray to hopefully confuse the flies when we lifted the mesh for thinning and weeding, but we didn't use it at the beginning. I am not so sure if it is a repellant for the flies, or just hide the scent.

[@michaelmcclafferty3346]

@@REDGardens Hello Bruce, I’ve read that carrot fly normally don’t fly above 14 inches. I think I said above that my tubs were 50cms high. They are more like 70cms or 30 inches. Sorry about that. It would be an interesting experiment to see what the difference would be if you grew carrots in tubs. It’s a right scunner to write off so many carrots but at least you had a good crop. I think now that if my successes outweigh my failures then I’m winning. All the best - Michael

[@manuelsza7064]

man I do genuinely love your channel, please do not start using such bad titles, it makes you disappear in the middle of the nothing of KZbin

[@steveneason893]

Carrot flies reside in the soil over winter as pupae, and hatch out in the spring, so it is likely they are hatching under your cover. Carrots are a crop that really benefits from rotation for this reason. Also, you can introduce predatory nematodes to reduce the population We don't have carrot fly on our farm, though nearby farms do. We think it is because our silty soil saturates each winter and the nearby farms have a sandy soil . But we do have cabbage root maggots. We used predatory nematodes a few times a few years ago with apparent success. We no longer use them, however, as a resident population seems to have established. (No evidence of such a population except the absence of significant root maggot damage.)

[@REDGardens]

Very interesting that you doing have carrot fly but your neighbours do! I am grown on fairly well draining Sammy loam, so great fro overwintering pests in the soil. I was wondering if they would be hatching under the cover. The towels mean that the flies are hanging out in the potato patch beside it, and survive the potatoes being dug out.

[@christophermee5214]

I decided to grow my carrots in a 16” raised bed ( in play-sand) I had a great season and a really good yield. Best of all NO CARROT FLY.

[@dawnmorning]

Great carrots.

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@Marialla.]

I wish I lived near you! I'd help out on the processing days, preserving these carrots and other crops. A lot of them look like they'd be good with just a little scraping, and then could be canned, dried, or frozen. It would be fun to be part of a team with a project like this.

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@Thrymheim1]

I find forking in carrots fascinating, my soil is thin sand over chalk. And full of stones, everything from gravel size to boulders that need an excavator to move. My carrots do not fork. They do often have a bend in them where they go round a stone, but they don't fork. They will fork if they are grown to closely together. As to carrot fly, I don't generally have a big issue with it, but this year was terrible. I always plant carrots with aliums in the adjacent beds, I thought it helped, but this year I might as well have opened a fly restaurant. Sugarsnax are a great type but not for main top, they split something terrible when they get big.

[@REDGardens]

That is interesting. The idea that stones case forking is an idea I had picked up a while ago, but doesn't match my experience over the years. I think forking is more caused by the tiny initial roots running into pockets of active decomposition and they get eaten or (burned off). I have tried to grow carrots in between onions and garlic and still got carrot fly.

[@charlespalmer3595]

I feel your pain. I plant carrots every year, and every year they are a disappointment. Germination is spotty, pests are always a problem, and harvest is so soul sucking that I say NEVER AGAIN! But I do it again the next season anyway! Why? Why do I keep at it? 🥕

[@AJWGBFX]

I used to be like you. I now start my carrot seeds in compost filled toilet roll cardboard tubes indoors, before planting into no-dig raised beds using a bulb planter. Time and resource heavy, but my only problem remains the dreaded root fly. Will try nematodes this year.

[@REDGardens]

I have been there! They are such a pain to grow, but also so productive and useful, and delicious.

[@lambsquartersfarm]

I did carrot trials this year also. I originally thought the Bolero was the growing winner based on the green tops, but found out the tops are not good indicators of what is growing below! The storage carrots like Autumn King had the shortest tops and the biggest roots. I noticed the OPs performed just as well, although not as pretty and uniform in, especially the Nantes types. But for flavour, my pick was Mokum, they seem to have the edge on sweetness which my family loves best. No carrot fly here thankfully, Canada zone 6b.

[@REDGardens]

Yeah, the top and root growth can be a lot different! I will have to keep an eye out for Mokum, thanks for the recommendation. I wish we didn't have any carrot fly around here, t is our most problematic pest. Bu the don't have squash borers or a few other pests that are common in North America, so I guess it is a bit of a balance. Zone 6b, is that Ontario?

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@REDGardens 6b is quite a few hundred miles south of Ontario.

[@REDGardens]

@@BlackJesus8463 There seem to be a few 6b zones in southern Ontario, eastern Ontario on the lake, in BC and possibly in southern Nova Scotia. Or at least what is called 6b in Canada - it could be a different scale than in the US.

[@lambsquartersfarm]

@@REDGardens Yes, we're about 2 hours from Toronto on Lake Ontario.

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@REDGardens You're right! There are little slivers of 6b all around the great lakes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@jimmys60ny]

I changed tack 3 years ago following many disappointing years. I built a raised bed more than 18" high. Then I used very finely sifted earth and compost mixed to fill the bed, next I used seed tape which has the seed ready spaced. So no need for thinning or handling the young plants . I then, like you, netted with extremely fine netting and except for water spraying during extremely dry spells let nature lead me to the best and most easily managed harvest ever. The next two years I added enough finely sieved earth and compost to refill the beds but also flamed the whole bed twice a week apart before putting the seed tape in. The bed was 2.4 m x 1.2m. So far, I've had three truly successful harvests. My neighbour on the next allotment used seed tape also this year and borrowed my flame torch twice before sowing, he used nets from the start and his crop was even better than mine, he didn't have a raised bed. So I am going to trial going back down to the ground next year. The flamer, nets and absolutely no handling may be some way to the holy grail of carrot growing. I have had forking, not bad, but it does make me wonder if its the seed itself rather than the traditional reasons. The compost I used was about two years old from household veg waste, tree leaves, and with a wee bit of wood Ash, it looked more like very wormy soil than compost. (The worms were saved during the sieving process and put into the fresh compost heap. 😁)

[@REDGardens]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is so useful to find out what other people have success with. Sounds like you have a good system going. We still direct sow (can't get tape easily around here) but the flame weeding helps a lot.

[@stubbi]

My grandmother used to intercrop onions and carrots in pretty tight spacing (so one row carrots, one row onions, another row carrots and so on), and according to her the reason was that the carrot pests didnt like onions next to them. Maybe another one to try out.

[@REDGardens]

I tried that for a few years in one of my gardens, and the carrots still got carrot fly. There is probably a way to do it, or a context where it works better, but I haven’t found that it works enough to rely on.

[@critterjon4061]

A trick I heard is to cover the sowing area with a tarp and pump the exhaust from a vehicle under it as the gas kills off any fly larvae that might be over wintering in the soil

[@REDGardens]

Wow, hadn't heard of that. Likely kill all of the worms too, and a lot of the rest of the soil life.

[@bonniepoole1095]

I love carrots and I find them hard to grow in the PNW of the US. The ground is cold until mid June and the season is short. My neighbor has more success producing large carrots but he gives his entire crop because they are split and forked and he doesn't want to deal with them. I'll take them, thanks!

[@REDGardens]

It can be a tough crop to grow! I have eaten a lot of carrots that are split, forked or riddled with carrot fly, but so many people dont want anything to do with them.

[@Pixieworksstudio]

Oh no! I'm gutted for you. It is one of those crops that you just don't know, as you said. They are so damaging aren't they, but at least the slug problem is under control. Thankfully we don't have carrot root fly here, but never say never. I found this year that if it wasn't one thing it was another, one thing after another and we were just inundated - if it didn't fly it crawled! Several mild winters really haven't helped here at all. I haven't seen some of those carrot varieties that you used, but I found Paris Market - the round variety - good here, and Purple Rain, oddly enough. Good luck for next year!

[@REDGardens]

Pests can be a real hassle. The carrot fly remains one of our key pest problems, but we also started to get a lot of cabbage root maggot this year, which is worrying.

[@Pixieworksstudio]

@@REDGardens Yes, I got that too. A real pain. I had a beautiful cabbage growing, it was a real picture, and then it wilted in the sunshine and I knew exactly why! So frustrating. That is such a pity about the carrots though - you really did everything you could. I was surprised, to be fair.

[@timobreumelhof88]

Ouch that really hurts the Fly damage.. In our previous garden we had a lot of carrot fly damage too, but now (maybe because we are at 600M altitude) non it seems, although there are a lot of wild carrots growing in the neighborhood. But I agree that it's a difficult vegetable. Our germination really bad this year, maybe 5% made it..

[@REDGardens]

Yeah, it is tough! Both the carrot fly and the failed germination. Glad we were able to get good germinaiton this year.

[@ziran123]

You could try to grow some carrots in a raised bed. From what i heard carrot flies don't fly so high over the ground, so a raised bed 20 or 40cm high would be a possible experiment.

[@REDGardens]

That would be an interesting experiment. I was thinking in large grow bags.

[@tysonbelko4358]

I used a layer of dusty white wood ash around carrots to help with pests.

[@REDGardens]

I wonder if the would help with carrot fly.

[@tysonbelko4358]

@@REDGardens Might be an interesting experiment. My Grandpa and Great-Grandpa both used them on carrots and beets.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

I wonder if an organic pesticide like Pyola would help with the carrot fly problem. It's made from chrysanthemums. Perhaps our ancestors just tolerated their damaged carrots. I never even knew those holes were the result of a larva until you mentioned it. I always just thought it was root rot.

[@REDGardens]

I usually don't use any pesticides, but with this pest, I would be tempted!

[@ukaszkukoowicz6328]

You can try interplanting at least some onions and coriander. The flies have harder time finding carrots as the onion smell dissorients them. Not a guarantee, but the damage is greatly reduced.

[@REDGardens]

I tried carrots between batches of onions and garlic int he Polytulture garden for a few years and still ended up with a lot of carrot fly damage.

[@slaplapdog]

I admire your willingness to struggle growing carrots. They seem very demanding for what they give back, but I suppose it's worth it to add variety to your larder.

[@REDGardens]

They are a tough crop, probably the one I consistently have trouble with. But they are so useful and versatile, and can be so abundant when they do really well, that I think it is worth growing them. Even with this crop, there is still a lot of great carrots to eat, just not as much as there could be, and with more work.

[@iamGrowing]

Maybe use some temporary small fencing around that one bed and let your chickens live there for a few weeks. They’ll pick everything out. This is what I’m planning on doing each fall and winter probably starting next year. I don’t really have too many pest issues but I’d like to keep it that way.

[@REDGardens]

I wonder if the hens will eat those flies? They might be in the bed, but I suspect that they are coming in after the crop is in place.

[@prjndigo]

I'm surprised that so few seed companies have ever worked on bait-crop varieties.

[@REDGardens]

I wonder why?

[@steveme120]

excellent as normal ,very useful thanks

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@f3n1xplat3ad0]

Great video!

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@AmirsAllotment]

Fantastic 😊

[@REDGardens]

Thanks

[@milkweed7678]

Great info and video. I've had tremendous luck with Napoli carrot variety. Very good flavor also.

[@REDGardens]

Thanks. I have been growing Napoli as an early carrot as well. I like it.

[@ivyclark70]

Oh no. I'm gutted for you. The harvest looked amazing and a huge improvement to last year.

[@REDGardens]

Yeah, it sucked. But still a lot more useable carrots that last year.

[@bobaloo2012]

Sorry to see the carrot fly damage but your soil is looking fantastic. Bolero is my main crop carrot the last few years, almost no splitting or forking for me. I also grow Mokum for summer carrots. Most have done well with the exception of a bunch of carrot seed I got from Franchi, the worst seed I've ever bought. Most of their seed is good but the carrots were heavily crossed with wild carrot and totally unuseable.

[@REDGardens]

The soil in this garden is really nice at the moment! You are the second person to mention Mokum, I'll have to keep an eye out for that variety. It is really tough when you get a cross pollinated seed. I had that with squash, and partially with one batch of carrot seed, but it can be a real hassle!

[@lindataylor7718]

New subscriber here and big fan of your analytical approach. I’m in Vancouver and my biggest pest problems are carrot fly, cabbage moth and slugs. A couple of years ago I built a 3.5 ft high bed for my husband so he could grow lettuce without slug damage and not have to bend over. Ha! Still got slugs and gave up on lettuce. So I tried kale and collards. Amazingly no cabbage moth damage! My kale and collards are routinely skeletonized. I saw plenty of butterflies flying around the raised bed but no maggots or damage. Every other plant in my garden was horribly damaged. I’d like to try this again to assess reproducibility but I’m going with carrots this year uncovered in my raised bed. We’ll see.

[@gregbluefinstudios4658]

Interesting result. intellectually, I had read and assumed, that carrots want a loose soil, in order to send taproot down straight. Getting the better result (w/ less forking) from No Dig seems counterintuitive. I mean, it 'should' be more compact, less loose in no dig. Yet, it was actually easier for taproot to grow straighter. Sorry about Carrot fly... have you experimented with companion planting w/ onion? Rumor has it that onion scent helps with throwing the fly off the carrot scent. Maybe an outer ring around the carrot (still inside the netting) next year, for an experiment? do one bed with allium? one without?

[@REDGardens]

Yea, they are quite counterintuitive. I was also surprised about how well the crop did in the firm and still stony soil of the no-dig garden. I did some companion planting in my polyculture garden for a few years, and always found carrot fly in the carrots grown among onions.

[@gregbluefinstudios4658]

@@REDGardens Some ties, Companion planting simply doesn't help as much as we hope. Frankly, I am taking Carrot fly off my Christmas list this year.

[@BattlingApathy]

Oh, wow, that must be frustrating. If it's not one thing, it's another! I wonder if it would help to compartmentalize the mesh cover at smaller intervals, instead of covering the whole bed as one unit? Granted, the setup would be more fiddly, but since you only do it once and then don't lift the cover until the end of the season, it might be manageable. It wouldn't help if the eggs/larvae are already in the soil, but if they're sneaking in somewhere, it should help contain their spread.

[@REDGardens]

I think compartmentalising the mesh would work well, at least stopping the spread of the second generation of flies trapped under the cover.

[@happyhillsfarm9598]

Thanks for the video! We also struggle with fly larvae damage with our carrots. The last couple of years we have been experimenting with interplanting our carrots with onions with some success. Although there are added challenges when doing this on a larger commercial scale.

[@BlackJesus8463]

I was thinking garlic would be better companions. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@REDGardens]

I haven't had any success with the interplanting option.

[@happyhillsfarm9598]

@@REDGardens darn!

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@happyhillsfarm9598 ikr just think how much pesticide the average person must eat.

[@kgarden8960]

@@REDGardens I think companion-planting is, at best, a deterrent, and even a small number of pesky carrot fly cause huge amounts of damage to the crop. So I think the only solution is to exclude / eradicate them. Using netting probably have to "attend" to the crop when fly is not airborne e.g. at dusk. Tiresome!

[@sethl3702]

I do no dig with boadforking and compost added to the surface. I focused on carrots this year because I was tired of inconsistent crops. I don't see carrot fly damage in my crops but I don't let them get ad big as your carrots are. I love your simple garden and I would recommend harvesting the carrots earlier and sowing a cover crop in that area afterwards for the winter. You could crimp and tarp that in the spring before the squash. I would use cereal rye as a cover if it works in your area. Love your work keep it going!

[@REDGardens]

Thanks! I think a cover crop after the onions would definitely work, but with the carrots I would be hesitant harvesting them earlier, as I feel that leaving them until the goodness of the green tops has gone into the roots increases the flavour (though I have no evidence of that). But something to consider.

[@sethl3702]

@@REDGardens we plant them every month of the year. Goal is for a half inch diameter six to eight inches long. When it comes to flavor I have found variety and weather to be the main factors. Summer carrots are our least flavorful but still better than any in a store. Winter carrots stored in the ground with frost cover are the sweetest. The ones we are harvesting now were sown in September.

[@jorgemach___2162]

and add sticky traps for the fly in under the netting

[@REDGardens]

That would be interesting to try.

[@msa3491]

The forking issue is directly due to shallow watering which causes the plant to send out roots looking for water. If you water consistently well each time it should mitigate the problem. Probably also some clayey parts in the soil prevented water water penetrating deeply enough 😊

[@REDGardens]

I don't know how that would be an issue in fairly well draining sandy loam soil that we have, with lots of rain.

[@msa3491]

I understand, makes sense. Thank you 👍

[@GratefulWarriorMom]

Thank you for all the great information and hard work. I have not gotten to the point of having a full garden yet as I just have raised bed and containers right now. But, I'm really leaning towards the no dig approach to expand.

[@REDGardens]

Glad you are enjoying my videos, and hope you get a bigger garden soon.

[@JennTN411]

I find the split carrots endearing, if not funny. I may have a warped brain😆 Are the split carrots in any way different in terms of taste? I don't understand why some would not use these, nature is not in the business of perfect food shapes. If they taste good and are of good quality, besides misshapen, bring them on! 😁 Thank you for sharing your hard work with us❤

[@REDGardens]

Yeah, they are quite amusing, with so many shapes and distortions. And they are harder to store and a pain to use in the kitchen, especially when I want to make a big meal for a lot of people!

[@JennTN411]

@@REDGardens oh, that makes sense then! I hadn't thought that far into it, but will keep that in mind to make sure I sift well the seed starting mix ❤

[@kirstypollock6811]

Ooh. I didn't know that those horizontal cracks in carrots were from carrot fly! I didn't plant very many, mainly in May, though I did a July planting after potatoes in the raised bed, so I now don't have many to check but I will. My raised bed ones were variable, with some not developing roots at all. Lots of mine were yellow rather than orange but I did plant some multicoloured ones and lost track so maybe that's to be expected! Carrots did best in my rototilled native soil, getting very long in some cases, despite stones. Interestingly, the purple ones (2 varieties) seem to do REALLY well in my garden.

[@REDGardens]

Interesting that the carrots on rototiller soil did best, was there any vegetation growth on it before tilling? I have found the stones to be not much of an issue, such as in the no-dig garden this year, where there are still lots of stones in the soil, but very few forked carrots.

[@kirstypollock6811]

@@REDGardens was my veg patch from last year. Next to where I had beans. I think there was Tetragonia there last year (it really took over...). Next to a lot of nettles. Grew grass/weeds over the winter. Had nothing but "Vitamin P"(urine) and one dose of fermented nettles. It did have a lot of an old loose "clay" floor dumped on it 2 yes ago. But the ex farmers field was also good for the few carrots I grew there. No clay but same rototill and Vitamin P treatment

[@VanderlyndenJengold]

My parsnip look great until I wash them and the canker is revealed. It's not as extensive as the damage done by carrot fly though, and I peel it off. My carrots have been pretty good this year. Lots of successional sowing. Nantes performing well. Very tasty. My leeks have been disastrous. Last years I had very little leaf miner damage, this year it has been widespread where the leeks were uncovered.

[@REDGardens]

I get a lot of canker on the Parsnips too. I am glad we don't have to deal with leaf miners in the leeks!

[@kgarden8960]

I have read that Carrot Fly can create damage to parsnips which then lets the canker develop - don't know if that is true or not. I mean to net my Parsnips every year but have never done it ... same with Leeks - to keep the Leak Moth off them - prevention better than sure I reckon.

[@glassbackdiy3949]

Intesting results, thanks for sharing. I had 2 crops of carrot, one in a 2ft high raised bed, and one in 2 gal pots, both sewn first week in June, had some splitting due to all the rain, but luckily no carrot fly at all, maybe my late sewing or relatively remote location at leat a mile away from any other growers helped in that regard, I don't thin thinking this helps too, instead using a 3/4" wire grid to individually space the seeds in the pots, though it would be too time consuming to do on a large scale, I used taped seeds for the raised beds to save thinning. I had very little forking in a sieved 2yo composted woodchip 75:25% silt with no other fertility added.

[@REDGardens]

That was interesting. I wonder if it was the late sowing or the raised growing. But I imagine the isolation is a big part of it. We didn't have carrot fly for a few years, but once we got them they grew to a strong resident population.

[@thehorrorification]

Carrots growing can be very frustrating. Every year I fill a container which is about 15 inches deep x 18 inches wide x 3 feet long with homemade compost and top it with 1-2 inches of a peat based potting compost for a clean seed bed. I scatter seed over the surface in the polytunnel around mid-February, thin them out when they germinate and leave it in the tunnel until early May. I then move it outside and cover it with fleece. Every year, this gives me excellent (if smaller than usual) carrots from late May or early June. My outdoor carrots are different every year. I purpose built beds about 3 1/2 feet high after reading so many say the carrot fly doesn't fly higher than 18 inches or so. They can obviously walk up the sides though. First year, uncovered, they were full of carrot fly. I grew salad crops the next year to allow the fly to leave the soil and built wooden frames covered in fine mesh to sit on the beds. I got quite a few years with zero fly after that but the carrots varied year to year. Some years huge, straight roots with lots of them around 12 inches long and many up to 18 inches. Some years they are quite stumpy and forked. the beds were always prepared the same way, no dig with about an inch of compost. Last year, the fly finally got into all three beds late in the year so I must find a new place for them next year. I have several large, old wooden planters that were used for flower displays but are well past their best. I have replaced these and am thinking about using the old ones for carrots next year, filling them with compost and placing them on a gravel area where I can keep them covered in fleece all summer. Carrots are tricky, (with no pesticide), no two years are the same. Varieties I use are Nantes 2 and F1 Maestro (which is excellent) and always some yellow and purple ones for the novelty.

[@REDGardens]

That is interesting. I want to explore using containers and large grow bags some more for things like that. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[@thehorrorification]

@@REDGardens No worries, thanks for your videos. They are always very interesting, I like your focus on data and record keeping. I am really enjoying watching you explore different methods and sharing your results. I'm in Ireland too by the way. Up north in Tyrone.

[@kingjames4886]

I seem to recall something about too fertile soil causing hairy carrots. probably has something to do with the forking issues too.

[@de571]

Great crop! 🙌 Maybe planting garlic🧄 nearby would help deter the carrot flies 🥕🥕🥕

[@REDGardens]

I have tried onions and garlic and they don't seem to have any impact, unfortunately.

[@de571]

@@REDGardens another myth busted 😂🤣...good to know though, thanks for the heads up 🤜🤛

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@REDGardens dang, maybe marigolds?

[@REDGardens]

@@de571 Not sure if it's busted, but I haven't been able to see it work. I should really do a proper trial/test next year.

[@kgarden8960]

@@de571 I think companion planting reduces the pest - but even one or two cause damage, so that only leaves excluding them completely with netting - and then have to be fastidious that there are no gaps / damage anywhere.

[@revvend]

Ah man, carroty flies were a disaster to me as well this year, here in Co Cavan, never had them before but this year they hit really hard. :-( Will try netting next year.

[@REDGardens]

That is tough. I didn't have them for a few years, and then suddenly got a lot of them. I figure it took a while for flies to take up residence, and then because I didn't cover them I created a perfect breeding ground for them.

[@rogerclarke7407]

I don't know if i have been lucky but I used some white fly traps, (basically fly paper) and i haven had any carrot fly for a few years. I also grow an extra sweet variety of carrot (sweetness III) that doesn't get the muddy flavour when i do get a fly issue.

[@REDGardens]

That is interesting. Did you use to have a lot of issues with carrot fly?

[@rogerclarke7407]

@@REDGardens Not as bad as you get them. I follow a few rules learned over the years. Don't thin out your carrots was the first one. Take the time to sow the seeds far enough apart so thinning is unnecessary. Carrot bed is next to the onion bed. But the flypaper cleaned up the few that I was getting.

[@artandmore575]

👍 Great

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@tnjon66]

I have been able to use beneficial nematodes to control root maggots and slugs on many different crops cold crops as well as root crops milky Spore is really good at controlling ants and Japanese beetles look into these treatments

[@REDGardens]

That is interesting. I really need to look into beneficial creatures some more.

[@Endorfen2011]

Look into companion planting to help with pests. Onions deter Carrot fly.

[@REDGardens]

I tried that for a few years in my Polyculture garden, with carrots sown in between onions and garlic, and still got carrot fly.

[@What..a..shambles]

I grow autumn king and Nantes,no dig style..50ft..30"..5 rows..broadfork,flame weed,sow with jang..water...tarp and normally takes 10 ish days check from 5..homesaved germ in 4 days and more vigorous from what I see..cover straight away,odd bit of weeding if lucky....sow too thick and you get small carrot's... watering in dry spells the hardest even on damp ground, water table rises at winter and rots the tips on me ...good carrots and parsnips will sell all-day..hard to have a bad year when people get used to quality 👍🏻

[@REDGardens]

Sounds like you have a good method there. I haven't tried the tarp method for germination, but would like to.

[@What..a..shambles]

Copied from others Bruce ,it would be a dream to have manifolds and drip tape but ,£££..maybe some day ... Don't have the clientele for mad prices..headtorch and scissors are essential for slugs here to prevent losses early on.. Thanks for the videos showing wins and losses for it's never all roses 👍🏻

[@REDGardens]

@@What..a..shambles Head torches and scissors are definitely essential!

[@dollyperry3020]

I would suggest a side-by-side trial of floating row cover vs the mesh. But that said...I don't have carrot fly in my area.

[@REDGardens]

I haven't tried floating row covers, but it would be interesting to try. I suspect they would be more likely to tear during the long season.

[@dollyperry3020]

@@REDGardens I've never had one tear :)

[@REDGardens]

@@dollyperry3020 In our windy area, they tear quite easily if they are left on the crops for too long.

[@dollyperry3020]

@RED Gardens Have you tried heavier weight? They come in multiple thicknesses.

[@dollyperry3020]

@@REDGardens www.johnnyseeds.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-JSSSharedLibrary/default/dwa4b9c260/assets/information/row-covers-comparison-chart.pdf

[@Nick_Jarrett]

Interplant companion plants which confuse carrot root fly

[@REDGardens]

I have tried that in my Polyculture garden for a few years, and it didn't seem to help. The carrots still got a lot of carrot fly.

[@jonokemphughes]

If they don't emerge until the 1st of June, and you harvest mid July, you won't have a spec of damage, but the roots will be small. In my field carrots, I push my luck on the end of the season, harvesting mid August for minimal fly damage, with close seed spacing for a decent yield of small roots. Refrigeration is essential to stop the fly spreading in storage. In a garden, I would sow late, then net in mid July to extend the end of the season

[@jonokemphughes]

Carrots are heartbreaking. I feel your pain

[@REDGardens]

I was thinking of switching to a quick crop like that, but then still want a main storage crop.

[@chainepotagere]

carrot flies isn't a real big issue here in north of France. i think i'll cover for the next few seasons this culture cause when it's installed in our garden it can be a problem who will be really difficult to exit in comparison to preventing methods. many of us really struggling with this crop, it really depends how much the summer and weather is to make a decent harvest !

[@REDGardens]

I think that is the problem here, I have allowed the pest to become really established.

[@Gardeningoncursedground]

three years in a row now all my carrots have had so much root fly damage we didnt even eat them. they were netted the whole time. this is my puzzle to work on. im trying different locations next year whare i have never growen carrots before. i see this patter with most crops first couple times growing something it goes great then pests or disese appear and its a world of little puzzles to figure what lenths you have to go to for some basic common vegies.

[@REDGardens]

I have seen the same pattern as well!

[@OrtoForesta]

Using nylon mesh (0.8mm hole) and stopping thinning has made a shocking difference to our no-dig carrots (for market production). Virtually zero carrot fly in the last two years.

[@REDGardens]

That is encouraging!

[@kgarden8960]

@@REDGardens Its probably too much of a faff for your scale, but I chit my carrot seed (moist kitchen paper for a few days) so that my germination rate is very high (and reduced time too), and then I sow them very thinly to avoid thinning. But handling the "damp" seed when sowing is slow ...

[@christophermee5214]

Why don’t you try growing the carrots higher up (off the deck). I did this this growing season and had a great yield.

[@REDGardens]

Like in a raised bed? That would be a big volume of material to bring in, at least for the scale I am growing at.

[@gailthornbury291]

Oh I do hate carrot fly. I only grow baby carrots under mesh rather than the storage carrots. That way the generations don’t build up under the mesh haven. It limits the damage if the little horrors get past the mesh. BUT …..no winter carrots!

[@REDGardens]

I am thinking of switching mostly to small carrots and avoid these long growing crops.

[@doinacampean9132]

When you add compost on top of a no dig bed, I thought you're supposed to just lay it there, and not work it through?

[@REDGardens]

Yes, I just add it to the top.

[@rubygray7749]

That's a terrible shame! Perhaps the soil conditions beneath the plastic cover over winter, favoured the survival of the little blighters. You need a couple of pigs nuw to turn the damaged carrots into prime pork and fertilizer.

[@REDGardens]

I was wondering if they had overwintered under the netting, but apparently they come out earlier in the spring from overwintering, when the soil was bare and before the carrots were sown. So not sure if this is the way they got in , unless they were dormant until well into May.

[@garydarel1322]

Forking may be caused by too much nitrogen. Use a higher phosphorous fertilizer.

[@REDGardens]

That is a possibility.

[@garydarel1322]

@@REDGardens I also planted my seeds in the fall last year with my garlic and had the best results ever. I live in zone 4a and have a short growing season. I have not tried the netting as I haven't noticed any damage to carrotfly.

[@insidethegardenwall22]

I had heavy pest pressure this year that you didn’t have; slugs, mice, moles/voles, squirrels etc. Tell me how you avoided those! Better yet please do a video on your latest techniques in fighting pests. No carrot flies here but I had germination (timing, cold but dry spring, watering) and pest (voles maybe) issues. I don’t know how much money wasted in my organic seeds this way. Sometimes I can get farmers market #2 carrots $7 for 5# which is a lot easier than me trying to fight nature, voles… Did you can/pickle/eat your not-so-perfect carrots?

[@REDGardens]

Pests can be a real hassle! We don't have squirrel or mole issues around here. The mice don't seem tot be an issue either. With the rats I kill the nests to keep the population down and tempt them with compost so that they aren't interested in the veg in the gardens. With slugs we use a bunch of techniques, including leaving out boards for them to hide under, which we turn over regularly and kill all the slugs with a pair of scissors. And we have started to use an 'organic' version of slug pellets which seem to really work well.

[@superresistant0]

but how are you going to control the pest ? the net did not work

[@REDGardens]

I think the netting was not on early enough. It needs to be on from before the seeds germinate, and buried around the edges to avoid any getting in under the cracks. And to check and repair any holes in the mesh. I also want to plant a lot more trap crops, give the flies something easy to get to so that they will leave the meshed crops alone.

[@jorgemach___2162]

flea beetle larvae damage looks the same .. should look into predator nematodes

[@REDGardens]

Yes, something I want to explore.

[@alisonburgess345]

A soil principle I've heard recently is that it's a mistake to leave soil empty of growing plants. It's apparently important to have live roots interacting with the soil life (bacteria, rotifers, etc). Therefore I've tried to avoid this and have vegetables growing all the time, even if it's cold tolerant brassicas (cabbages in particular are especially delicious - super crispy and sweet - when grown in the cold rainy winter months). That carrot fly you have up north is such a curse...

[@REDGardens]

It is useful to keep plants growing on the soil, something I am not great at. In the case of these carrots it would be a problem I think.

[@frederickheard2022]

Looks like a job for a carrot juicer?

[@REDGardens]

Yep, need to get one!

[@Chris-op7yt]

carrots....mildish climates required. after several years of not bothering with this still fairly cheap vegetable, i'm growing some in a bit of space that has become open in a row.

[@REDGardens]

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth growing with so many issues. But then I taste one and know why!

[@Chris-op7yt]

@@REDGardens : stumbled onto proper food safety procedures for veggies. might start doing this....wash in water that is 10C warmer than veggies, followed by a specific concentration of food grade bleach product designed for this, in ample water but again in right concentration, for 5 minutes. then dry. Apparently washing in cold water makes the water go in, including whatever pathogens were external.

[@lisahodges8299]

Change may red no good? I fail at carrots too. Birdy

[@REDGardens]

Carrots can be tough to grow!

[@trockodile]

May I ask who you get your carrot fly mesh from please? Many thanks.

[@REDGardens]

I bought it from Fruit Hill Farm.

[@wdsp69]

Try growing Daikon.

[@REDGardens]

As a green manure or as a crop?

[@wdsp69]

@@REDGardens To eat, so as a crop.

[@aprilschneider5250]

What are you going to do to avoid the carrot fly next year?

[@REDGardens]

Good question. Putting the cover over as soon as the seeds are sown, rather than wait until they have germinated like we did last year. And make sure the mash cover doesn’t have any holes in it, and is sealed all the way around the edge.

[@ripaklaus764]

6 up half a dozen down. growing pains i guess

[@REDGardens]

haha, yeah, growing pains indeed!

[@Nurse_Lucy]

Is the carrot fly affected by BT?

[@lksf9820]

British Telecom?

[@REDGardens]

I don't know. I haven't used BT before.

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@REDGardens nematodes

[@bradcarby3765]

Can't you just burn the crop that has been affected and skip a season to permanently fuck up their life cycle? I know how I would deal with it, but I tend to label my produce "not organic".

[@REDGardens]

I try to process/use all the carrots, and cut out and boil any sections containing the carrot fly larvae, to at least kill many of this year's crop. Skipping a season would probably help keep the numbers down, but they can apparently also live off a few of the types of weeds around here.

[@BlackJesus8463]

Stop growing carrots! ✌

[@REDGardens]

I was thinking of doing that.

[@CEOAMARU]

First...

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@partimentieveryday]

This title haha😅. I’m impressed with the size of your carrot!

[@REDGardens]

🙂

[@evekinglehman84]

Carrot flies: my friend says she gets good results using BENEFICIAL NEMATODES. Hope it helps you too!

[@REDGardens]

That would be an interesting thing to try.