Carrots - to protect or not

[Raindancer411]

Hi All

I was wondering if I planted out my carrots in a container now whether I really need to protect them with fleece? I did this last year and the earwigs loved the fleece and as thanks ate all the tops off my seedlings killing what chances I had of a fresh carrot there and then... Want to try and actually get some carrots to eat this year...

Donna

[Two_Sheds]

Earwigs?
Sure it wasn't slugs? the fleece is to protect them from carrot fly. If you don't get carrot fly, you don't need the fleece.

April is the month to sow carrot, when the soil is warming up nicely.

[Eyren]

I don't use fleece at all with carrots. If I'm sowing them really early, I cover the seedlings with coke-bottle mini-cloches, which keeps them warm and keeps the slugs away; if I'm sowing them later, I use barrier methods such as bran (again, to keep the slugs off) plus companion planting with onions to avoid carrot root fly.

If carrot flies are a problem, enviromesh would be better than fleece, as carrots like cool dryish conditions. But they may not have found their way into your garden yet, if you haven't successfully grown any carrots!