bed depth - growing carrots and tomatoes

I bought some carrot seeds to start in the garden. I'm new to SFG, and I have a question. Is 6" really deep enough to grow carrots? Carrots in the store get a lot longer than that.

Also, is 6" really deep enough for tomatoes? I bought all indeterminate tomato seeds, and I've always thought tomatoes had deep roots. Six inches seems kind of shallow. (but what do I know? As I said, I'm new to this and totally learning as I go along.)

Thanks bunches!

Six inches is all you need. Making your beds deeper is simply not needed. I do my carrots in 6 inches as do a lot of others here on the forum. You can however plant your carrots and other root crops like it and potatoes in a top hat if you want.
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/accessories/top-hat-box-for-carrots-leeks-potatoes/
But as far as tomatoes go, they grow just fine in 6 inches as does just about everything else.

Hi Jazzycat,

If you look at my avatar, you will see one of my homemade top hats sitting on my table top SFG. They are a great and simple way to add depth where needed. Just another awesome idea given to us by Mel.

Thanks guys! I'm learning so much being here, and I've only been here a couple of days. I'm going to start building my beds soon, in the next week or two. The tomato seedlings are growing and looking good. I really can't wait to see how things turn out.

See this thread:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t4156-tomato-roots

When I pulled up my tomato plants at the end of season last year I found that the roots extended sideways about 2 squares over...so the root system was good enough to support and supply trellised vines that were over 6' ht.

Box depth can also depend on the variety of carrots you wish to grow and eat...in my deeper boxes I do Kuroda and Nantes...in my shallower boxes I do Danver Half Long and some other shorter, thicker varieties.

Thanks! You have satisfied my curiosity. Why spend money on more compost/vermiculite/peat if I don't have to?

That top hat thing is cool.

Jazzy busy weekend down there in Savannah huh? Same in Augusta. The weather is beautiful for St. Patrick's weekend. Have a good one and good luck with your garden! We go to Hilton Head several times during the summer and fish off of Tybee Island nice places down your way.

Man cj, when I was young I used to love St Patty's Day. I always went downtown and partied, for days on end. LOL Not anymore! I've grown to hate crowds as I've gotten older (and wiser, at least about some things) and it's such a hassle, fighting the traffic, fighting the crowds. So, I just go about my normal life. In fact, I had totally forgotten it was this weekend until I got up this morning and the parade was on TV.

It is a gorgeous day though, and I took some time to repot a few of my tomato seedlings that I was concerned about slow growth. The roots seemed to be fine, so I think the pots were just too small. Hopefully they will take off now. If they do, I will go ahead and repot the rest of them as well.

I hear you Jaz I made a few trips down there in my youth and the tickets in Hiltonia got me; talk about a speed trap! Most everybody I knew ended up in some sort of trouble so I quit going when I was young. We have the traffic problems coming up with the Masters but at least I know my way around to avoid it.

One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

@rdavidp wrote:One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

I looked at those and didn't end up ordering them for some reason I would love to hear your results with them. They make them look absolutely perfect in that picture

My calendar says that the seeds are not to be started until mid-April, but since I am growing all of my carrots in 12" deep containers in the center of my garden, I may get them started a bit early inside underneath my grow light. It is still cold here, but once it starts warming up, it warms up quickly and can get too hot early in the season.

@rdavidp wrote:My calendar says that the seeds are not to be started until mid-April, but since I am growing all of my carrots in 12" deep containers in the center of my garden, I may get them started a bit early inside underneath my grow light. It is still cold here, but once it starts warming up, it warms up quickly and can get too hot early in the season.

Hey, have you seen our Carrot Week 2013 Thread. You could possibly save a few seeds for planting mid April and share your results.

@rdavidp wrote:One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

We grew six squares of them .. sown at 2 inch spacings .. they were a total pain to prepare as they were only about 1" in diameter . The square that was left to over winter went all hairy rooted didn't have a bigger diameter to speak of when we lifted them about three weeks ago , though they were not woody just rather hard .

They did suffer a wee bit from carrot fly attack .

@rdavidp wrote:One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

Hope they turn out for you David! I'm doing heirloom carrots as well - Touchon carrots

@plantoid wrote:

@rdavidp wrote:One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

We grew six squares of them .. sown at 2 inch spacings .. they were a total pain to prepare as they were only about 1" in diameter . The square that was left to over winter went all hairy rooted didn't have a bigger diameter to speak of when we lifted them about three weeks ago , though they were not woody just rather hard .

They did suffer a wee bit from carrot fly attack .

That's too bad cause they sure make them look nice in the photos don't they?

I got a free packet of Parisian carrots from Baker Creek so grew them my first year. They were just ok. Took up basically the same space and growing time as all the bigger carrots and so the yield per square was much smaller. I grow most regular carrots in my 8" beds but generally look for types that are bigger around but about 6-7" long, such are the Danvers Half Long.

Those are so cute! Good luck!

We just ordered a red carrot called dragon and also nantes. We'll see what happens.

@RoOsTeR wrote:

@rdavidp wrote:One of the carrot varieties I am planting this year is an Heirloom carrot called Parisian carrots. Instead of long carrots, they grow as round little balls.

I looked at those and didn't end up ordering them for some reason I would love to hear your results with them. They make them look absolutely perfect in that picture

I do the Parisian carrots because of there size and I also do Danver which are a shorter carrot as well.