Learning From My Failures: Carrots

One of my big gardening enemies these many years has been the Carrot Fly.  Its maggots leave nasty, rusty holes in my winter storage carrots.  Over the last four growing seasons I’ve beaten them twice.

Bolero carrots from a Good year.

For that first successful year, I had initiated my Carrot Frames – a 2.5 foot high boundary fence of clear plastic stapled onto 2 X 2’s surrounding the carrot bed.  And it worked!  After so many years of failure I had the cleanest carrots all winter, stored the whole winter and early spring in the same bed under a one foot layer of maple leaves.

Four foot row of Bolero carrots across bed, overwintered under foot deep of leaves, picked / lifted in late December.

The next year was my 35^th year gardening in this location so I practiced my fifth Sabbath Rest Year.  That year I planted only Red Clover in the vegetable garden.  In the past, the seventh-year rest worked well as the kids grew up.  They really learned to appreciate all the great tasting, home grown produce we didn’t get to eat that year.  And it gave me a break from the labour of constantly gardening.

It’s not that I’m Jewish nor are we chained to Mosaic Law. 

Leviticus 25:4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.  

But it was a good exercise, especially for a doomer like me, to practice faith that the Lord would supply all our needs.  

Matthew 6:31-33   So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The next year following the Rest, I continued my rotation down the garden and once again my carrots were wonderfully clean of carrot fly damage.

But the third growing year, the bug damage came back. Could it have been the screen door I’d made in my greenhouse that opened into the carrot beds?   Was the fence too low?  Were they getting under the fence somehow?  What else could I change?  

Therefore, in preparing this last growing season’s carrot beds I increased the height of my ‘fence’ to 3 feet, made sure all the carrot frame’s ground perimeter was well secured, removed any outside stairs for stepping over the fence, made sure all old possibly contaminated covering leaves didn’t enter the new beds, plus I had moved the greenhouse with its screen door to the far end of the garden.

But in spite of all that, this last, fourth growing season was also a bust.  

Five pounds of Bolero carrots from four foot row across bed.

Carrot fly damage.

What did I do wrong?  The season’s carrots are still tasty and usable, it’s just that they’re ugly and a bit of a pain to prep and not something I could give away as gifts.

I have thought of two options. 

1) Perhaps the carrot flies are flying over the top of the fence? (they're not supposed to be able to get higher than 18 inches.)  That would mean I need some of that new netting one can get for such a purpose.  My son TOG uses such netting for his carrot beds.  He doesn't use a fence.  

2) Or perhaps the flies are laying eggs right next to the previous beds and lie in wait for my next rotation?  If that is the case, my rotation needs to be farther apart rather than just the next beds over.  

I believe I’ll try the second option.  That potential solution works well for me this coming year.  My carrot beds have reached the end of the four-year rotation and now move all the way back to the far end of the garden.  If successful, it will show I don’t need a roof screen-net.  I just need to change my rotation.  If not successful, then I’ll need a screen net.

With my expanded garden this last year I have room to change my rotation if needed.  I’ll also tighten up the screen door on the greenhouse now that the carrots will again be next to it.

One of the reasons I’ve always grown vegetables is that I Wanted to learn how.  Because someday I (we) may Need to know how.  I think maybe those days are soon coming.  And learning from my failures --- is still learning.

Happy Gardening.