Orange peril

Post categories: beetroot, carrot, pests

Ann Kelly|22:23 UK time, Tuesday, 21 July 2009

So, Chris has got a carrot. And a tomato. Hrumph. Well, two can play at vegetable oneupmanship. I may not have a tomato - yet - but take a look at this beetroot/carrot combo.

The observant amongst you will notice a couple of cucumbers - no, they're not Dig In veg, but I can't resist showing them off. They taste a thousand times better than the shop bought version, despite being such watery things.

This year, I've got a bit carrot mad. As well as the Dig In carrots (Early Nantes), I sowed Carson, a posho expensive F1 hybrid*, Amsterdam Forcing which is an early variety, Autumn King (just gone in), a late variety, and Red Elephant, a rare old variety which I got from GardenOrganic's Heritage Seed Library..

My Dig In carrots seem to have gone a bit comedy-shaped, and I'm not the only one - Hannah Dennis posted this collection of Carry On carrots to the Dig In Gallery. But I don't care, because this year I'm winning my yearly battle with the vile carrot fly.

It's got to be one of the most infuriating pests, because you don't know it's there until you harvest. Then you discover that your orange lovelies are riddled with the nasty little wormholes of the flies' burrowing larvae. Or "maggots" as I call them. The actual fly itself you hardly ever notice, it's a small drab thing. But the little horrors can smell carrots from a distance, and come flying in ready to lay maggot-eggs if you break any when you're weeding or harvesting.

This time around I'm using a mesh cover to foil them, which I put on immediately I'd sowed the seeds. It's worked well so far, although it does make weeding tricky. Last year I grew my carrots in big, high tubs as I'd heard the carrot fly, as well as being vile, is also pathetic and can't fly higher than a couple of foot. It must be partly true at least, as I only lost a few carrots to the fly. Other tricks include growing strong scented plants like marigolds around your carrots to put the rancid little midges off, and trying to time your carrot sowing to avoid them.

But this is one of those areas where I think everyone's got their own tips. If you've got one, share it in a comment.

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The Dig In campaign has finished now. Thanks to everyone who took part in the campaign throughout 2009 and 2010. We hope you enjoyed growing the Dig In seeds, especially those of you who are new to growing vegetables. This site is no longer being updated, but it is still packed full of useful information about growing veg.

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Ann "Dig In" Kelly looked after the blog from day to day until May 2010. Bitten by the gardening bug a few years ago, she has progressed from a few growbags to a great big polytunnel. She hates slugs.