One problem is that beets and carrots take 60 days or more to form, Parsnips even longer. Radishes, depending on variety 25- 70 days.

Veggies of concern are generally spring-planted or late-fall and overwintered/ altho radishes not so much and should produce. Sun may very well be a contributing factor, maybe too much N as well. But planting time and sun surely. If you are relatively frost-free in your neighborhood they may overwinter and continue when day-length increases. Mulch/row cover and see what happens in one plot.

Dan

Parsnips take 8 or 9 months to produce a decent root in my climate. They are sown early spring and dug in the winter. I'd just leave them alone and see what happens. Although Istanbul gets snow the temps apparently don't go particularly low so winter root crops sound feasible. What roots are the locals growing and harvesting at the moment?

Generally a lack of root vegetable formation is attributed to close spacing or excess nitrogen. There are also occasions when bolting is advanced.

Perhaps you used fresh manure or seeded too soon after manuring. Most vegetables need 4-6 hours of sun but should not impact all your root veggies; although they do better in a full sun for 8-10 hours.

A soil test might be in order to determine if there are specific imbalances affecting P and K uptake.

It took my root veggies longer than 40-45 days to start forming big roots, but once they did, they grew pretty rapidly. Check again every 2 weeks. I'd guess you'll see results in about 30 days from now.

Meanwhile, thin the plants to 6-8" apart. They'll grow sweeter with good spacing, and this will compensate for other deficiencies.

I would guess your biggest problem is sun. Three hours isn't very much. You may have the most luck with leafy greens in that spot, and you can expect everything to grow slower than it would in full sun.

Some root veggies naturally grow considerably out of the ground. Rutabagas grow almost entirely above the ground. Beets somewhat less. Radishes and turnips too. Here's a pic of some beets in my garden that are at least half way out:

I had the same problem with my root vegetables. I wondered about nitrogen too, even though I don't have particularly good garden soil to begin with...and with my beets, the tops were not productive either; stunted, actually. My Swiss chard, unlike some of my other green veg, were also very slow to develop, although they caught up in September; I'm wondering if plants in the beet family need a particular nutrient that my soil lacks, that other vegetables don't need as much of. My other root veggies had fairly vigorous tops; just no roots to speak of.

My Swiss Chard were three feet tall when I cut them last week. I did spray them with Miracle Grow once or twice, early on.

I wonder if they will come back from the roots like a rhubarb next year.

My carrots took forever, although I did stunt them a bit by not transplanting them, soon enough or for that matter not directly sowing them but in the last few weeks they really took off but I only had a few just to see how they'd do and how long they take, so I just ate them raw as a snack.

my winter leeks, cabbages and broccoli are doing very well now and have not been in the ground very long at all.