carrots and carrot fly

[hawthorns]

i have had my carrots under home made poly tunnel from seed and there going very well.

[zazen999]

Hi all
the great Carrot Fly debate
My only non-Cf success has been to interplant coriander and trim it every few days to keep the scent alive. Anything else just doesn't work for me. Most successful carrot has been the purple ones, they don't fork or anything.
I will definitely try the coffee grounds, I have been using them for years on onions but will try with carrots when i next sow a batch - won't be for ages now as we have loads on the go and will be carrot-rich this winter.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i read about carrot fly in an old gardening book
apparently they come when they smell the scent of the broken carrot leaves
easiest protection is not to break the carrot leaves
other gardening books say to mix radish seeds with carrot seeds to thin the carrots out and mark the lines of the drills - the radishes grow quickly and will be pulled without getting in the way of the carrots - BUT try pulling radishes out without breaking the leaves off the carrots!
i'll give the seed mixing a miss next year

[muckman]

Iv grown all my carrots in old baths i got from the local tip, had no problems with c/f, might have somthing to do with the hight.?

[mrskp]

This was my second successful year of growing carrots in the bath.

Circumstances dictate that many of them will be staying there to take their chances against the slugs this week but I've had no problem up til now with carrot fly.

New compost and fleece overcoat + height seems to do the job.

[Janco]

Growing carrots in an old bath now that sounds like a good idea to me and successful too! I have an old bath that has now been earmarked for carrots for next season. Many thanks for that suggestion.

[Mrs Dobby]

We are going to try growing them in the tubs we have our spuds in this year in the back garden, about 55l and 2' tall, so should do the job! The early carrots we planted on the plot were really bad with carrot root fly, and also rabbits eating the tops, whereas the later ones we planted have done ok, but not as big as we'd have liked due to wabbits eating the greens again, but at least no carrot root fly!

[pigletwillie]

I sow early and late in the season which tends to help. My main method is to sow 4-8 seeds at 4" intervals and dont thin them out. I just pull ones that are of a reasonable size when I need to. By not thinning, I dont damage the leaves and release the scent which attracts the dreaded fly.

As an added bonus you get succession too.

[Two_Sheds]

ive just read that if you sow carrot seed you should distribute a layer of ground coffee.

I wonder if this would work? By the time the carrot leaves had grown enough to attract the carrot fly, wouldn't the coffee have rotted/been rained away?
If anyone has tried this method with success, please let us know! we have smart flies on our plot, they got in under the nets.