Many of the Carrots have been burrowed into by the maggot of the Carrot Rust Fly. Looking closely at this photo, you can see some dark spots. If that continues to develop, those lovely Carrots will rot. And that, Dear Reader, is not in our plan.
A further indication that the Carrots needed to be dug was that their green tops were losing that vibrant green. The Voice of the Plant seemed to be saying: "I want outa here! and now!" Carrots are cool season, so it makes sense that they would want to move on in this intense heat.
I am pleased to report that we seem to be hearing the Voices of the Plants more, but we Humans indeed have a long way to go. You don't even need to ask the Plants about that one.
Richard likes for Carrots to stay in until the frost, which seems to sweeten them up. That's what we did in North Dakota. The growing season is surely longer here which means our rules often need some adjustment.
On this day, Richard and Melanie brought in a total of 68.75 pounds of Carrots. Of that amount, 49.75 pounds will be processed (either canning or dehydrating) and 19 pounds are saved for fresh. The former amount had damage, which was cut out. They of course will not keep as well.
And we learned even more lessons on this day. Rodale's The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disesase Control (1996, page 279) gives us further description of the Carrot Rust Fly. To control, seedbeds should be covered and sealed with a floating row cover before germination until harvest. They also suggest applying parasitic nematodes. I have to say that we have some learning to do here.
After reading this, I headed into the crop rotation section of the book (pages 415 and following). I was particularly interested in the statement that crops do poorly when following the planting of Carrots, Beets and Cabbages. And guess what? We 3 C's planted Cabbages in those 2 beds this in 2010. If the crop that followed the Cabbages was to do poorly (and in this case it was the Carrots), we put 2 crops back to back that certainly are not intent on enhancing the next crop's performance. We could have inadvertently put our lovely Carrots in a position of greater weakness.
We know we need to focus on Crop Rotation. This is just one example. But somehow, it requires multi-dimensional thinking. We've got to put our heads together on this one. The Voices of the Carrots are coming in loud and clear. We're listening.
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Notes:
I found this site helpful. http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb0921/eb0921.html
Rodale's The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disesase Control is an excellent source for the Gardener's library and for the local public library.
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