Fertiliser for carrots

[lottie dolly]

Where carrot fly is concerned,i leave nothing to chance,all i do is,form hoops aprox 2.5 ft in the center hight,along your bed ext,and cover with debri netting,or get some voil curtain netting,i have nails every aprox 18in,on the outside of the beds boarding,say 3in down from the top,and hook the debri netting onto them,keeps them out,plus you can gain easy access,

[Alison]

Round here I'm guaranteed to get bad carrot fly if I don't net, I don't put a frame over, just put it over the top and weight it down. Strangely though the ones in my polytunnel only a few feet away aren't affected at all.

[Kristen]

How definite is carrot root fly?
I'm growing carrots for the first time this year, in a small patch. If it is like 99% certain then I'll do stuff to try and avoid getting it, but I dont want to do spend the time and energy if it's only like 50/50.

The problem, as I see it, is that the damage caused by even one carrot fly is enough to be very annoying. As such I don't subscribe to anything whatsoever that has "deter" in its description. Companion planting, Deterent varieties, "most only fly low", placing higher up and so on. I net them with Enviromesh so that they are 100% carrot fly proof.

So in my mind your 99% comparison to 50:50 is inaccurate. Even 99% is not good enough, that one fly that gets through (or is the only one that exists in your low-fly area) is too many.

Having said that, if you harvest the carrots early (rather than leaving them in the bed until, say, Winter) then you may not notice any damage from the grubs. "may not" though ...

Net them, and use a net with small enough mesh. If you buy Environmesh, or similar, it will last many years.

[Kristen]

I dont use any feed on my carrots nor parsnips and i get great results.

Me too ... in fresh compost made from last year's Potato Bags and some Sand added.

Reusing THAT carrot compost, the following year, and the crops (in containers) were rubbish.

I think I need some fertiliser if I am going to reuse same-compost in future years.