at this point you should cull (pinch) the weakest shoot coming out of each hole. When they put on their set of true leaves, cull the one next weakest one and you'll be all set.

And technically, just for the random trivia, radishes are a "swollen stem" not root vegetable. There are tiny roots below the knot in the stem that you'll typically not consume. ;-p

AHH.. swollen root, never heard of that!

thanks allot...

I will do one of them today and then wait nutil they advance to true leaves and do all but the best!

swollen stem, not root. hehe...

so here are my carrots... what do I do and when? some sites say thin at 3" but the SFG usually is a bit different!

Carrots: 16 per square foot.

that looks pretty darn good! I would go out there with a scissors and just cut off the extra leaves. Just make sure that you have 16 per square(there is a way to do 25!). When you start carrots again, just try using 2 or 3 seeds in each hole that you make-that will keep your thinning to a minimum...nice job though.....

I know the planting density, but he says to put 2-3 seeds per hole in the 16 holes.... so once more than one grows... when do I thin?

I know the planting density, but he says to put 2-3 seeds per hole in the 16 holes.... so once more than one grows... when do I thin?

Answered upthread:

at this point you should cull (pinch) the weakest shoot coming out of each hole. When they put on their set of true leaves, cull the one next weakest one and you'll be all set.

And in the future, only plant one per hole to avoid having to thin.

Actually, for carrots I broadcast the seed and smear about to spread through the square, and for radishes I lay groves in one direction at the right spacing side to side then drop seeds in along the way at about the right distance.

I still double/triple-sow seeds, even though it's a SFG planting because I was taught by my mother that "...if you don't plant a couple for mother nature she might not leave any for you..."

which roughly translates to "if you only plant one seed you're pretty much guaranteed that it will not germinate or that a bird will eat it."

And just because the darn thing has sprouted doesn't mean that it's safe. I've had the birds "thinning" my sproutlets for me over the last week. If they nab anymore I'm gonna make a salt-gun. ;-p

Much of what I plant is either transplanted or larger stuff where I'm only thinning a few things. For instance, I plant 5 squash seeds to a hill, will thin to 4, but 3 is still plenty.

For carrots, I thin as they grow to get baby carrots while making room where its neighbors were starting to crowd. Same thing on turnips - I start with a dense but single planting and pick half only half-grown. Doing that, even if I have a few that don't sprout, it is no big deal, where in a traditional row garden that would be a significant amount of space lost to production of the full-grown crop.