[pete.guinness]

I pulled my 1st carrot yesterday and pulled a beautiful 5inch long, inch and a half thick carrot (see picture) ...lovely...the rest however i dont think will even come close .... i decided to sow another lot before the end of July and try again...how do i prevent them getting leggy in the first place? i sow a couple to each bog roll tube of compost and generally all come through...do i select the lucky few at this stage or allow them to grow to planting out height first?
i found my 1st attempted lot grew quite a significant top, probably a good 10-12 inches is this too tall for a Autumn king? (although looking at my picture its more like 14-20"  )

Im also growing rosemary...does each seed produce a big bush plant? ive only ever seen rosemary as a small plant but ive seen recently that it grows like a bush with quater inch thick branches...if ive planted 10-12 seeds have i planted far too much? or can i keep a small version...ill probably plant into a 10 litre flower bucket...

Many thanks, you are all very helpful

[JayG]

Common Rosemary can grow into a pretty large shrub, although there are more creeping forms I believe. It can be kept under control for a few years by careful trimming, but you can't cut away the wood (from which it won't re-grow) so the whole plant therefore finishes up rather woody and unattractive.

I usually start again every 3-4 years; it's a very easy plant to propagate from cuttings.

Dunno about the carrots; what makes you think the others will not measure up?

Why not sow straight into the final growing area (if they go leggy it could be trying to grow them indoors with insufficient light?)

[mumofstig]

the carrot problem could just be because they don't really like to be transplanted...could you sow them direct?

a single seed does eventually turn into a huge Rosemary bush...eventually.
You can keep control for a good few years just by cutting loads for cooking/drying, but they end up knarled and woody. This is when you take some cuttings and ditch the old plant

Looks as if I agreed with Jay again 

[viettaclark]

What type of carrots are you growing at the moment? They may be long thin ones!! Maybe you should try a stumpy type next. I planted Sweet Candle in pots last year about now and got a decent crop.

[Swing Swang]

We had a couple of very old rosemary bushes at the end of a mixed hedge - I guess that they were 20years+ when we moved. They were about 3.5ft high and 3ft thick and about 6ft long. The really old wood was about as thick as your arm and had been well 'trained'. The sides and top got cut with a hedge trimmer after flowering. The bottom 18 inches was woody and bare, but the tops were glorious. As the rosemary was under planted with grape hyacinths, lily of the valley and cyclamen the 'bare bottoms' weren't an issue for most of the year. Contrary to conventional wisdom it is possible to cut into the old wood - from experience an established plant will recover slowly (as with old lavender) but this really isn't desirable - you are best keeping an established framework and trimming the new growth frequently.

[pete.guinness]

Cheers for all the help and advice guys...its all sinking in ...

Im growing autumn kings...i tried sowing directly at the start of the season, only 1 or two popped so thort i would germinate inside and transplant....now its a bit warmer i suppose i could try again...

many thanks