I have been on line trying to find out why my carrots are so twisted and many legged. It is root-knot nematodes. The only thing that they seem to bother much is the carrots. According to what I have read the only organic way to help is with Tagetese Erecta marygolds. They have to be planted 7 inches apart and then tilled under at 2 months and repeat through the summer. We've staked out 2 plots as there is no way we could do the entire garden so we will just keep moving the carrots around. Gardens Alive catalog has something but it has to be re-applied every 3 months and is very expensive. Has anyone else had this problem or know of an easier way to deal with it?
I found this website that gives advice about these nematodes. I don't know just how useful it is but thought you might like to read it anyway. http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/FSA-7529.pdf
Many thanks Eileen. I printed off the paper and I'll stop by the extension agency and see what the soil temps need to be and how to collect samples. The article mentioned not hauling in native soil and that's exactly what we did! The whole garden is 6 inches deep with native soil. Thanks to this report, I'll take soil samples of other areas of my yard and see if there's a better place for it. I have looked for articles but haven't found one near as informative as this is. It would sure be nice if all we had to do is move the garden!
I'm glad the article was useful 2ofus. Do let us know how you get on with ridding yourself of those root-knot nematodes won't you?
