THINNING CARROTS

If you plant carrots by dropping those incredibly tiny seeds into a furrow by hand, odds are good that they may wind up spaced a bit too close in some places. That's fine, because the plants themselves will emerge almost thread-like, giving you time to thin them to proper spacing as they develop. This process usually involves a few successive thinnings, actually. First, when the plants are an inch or two tall, you can take scissors and simply snip out the seedlings that are within a half-inch or so of another plant. (Using scissors guarantees you won't harm the adjacent seedlings, since they're likely to be pretty close together.) As the season progresses, you can keep thinning, with the goal of allowing the remaining plants enough space to widen into a normal carrot without bumping into a neighbor. The older plants you pull may actually have tiny carrots formed, which are often a delightful treat tossed into a salad for a sweet hint of carrot-ness!