Itching To Plant Out

Firstly, a huge thanks for the patience and understanding of the good people here who have been so helpful in offering advice and information to an apprentice such as myself, you must have seen such questions many times and I appreciate your kindness in shedding the light.

So, my innocent questions today relate to:

1. Determining weed growth from my carrot and parsnip, which I sowed directly into my plot. I am presuming it would be better to allow more growth to more easily identify the veg from the weeds. My nice drills have been invaded a touch and disturbed so that it's hard to know which from which, can I thin out the carrots/pardsnips and replant when more developed?

2. Have some sprouting Borlotti in pots at present, can they go into my plot yet, are they fairly hardy, or would fleece be a help?

3. When's a good time to plant tomatoes? Is it too early down here in sunny Sussex? Or would they be better under fleece?

All advice most welcome

you will get an eye for spotting weeds very soon. dont worry until you get first set of true leaves.
replanting is not advised for the thinnings (others may differ on this). try using the thinnings on salads. or if you have sowed in a row thin them as late as possible. they do space themselves out. 

toms and beans can wait until mid may and even then if there is frost risk fleece might be handy.

Once you have learned what the carrots and parsnips look like you can make hand weeding a lot easier by carefully hoeing as close to either side of the row as you can.

A tip for marking the rows is to sow a few radishes at the same time as the carrots/parsnips. By a few I mean a seed every 3 inches - no more - the radishes come up quickly so that you know where to look for the carrots. You will also have a bonus crop of radishes.

Thin carrots as soon as you can see the plants, which is usually when the first proper leaf is showing. Pull out any weeds in the row and  thin the carrots so that there is a row of single plants about 1 inch apart. The ones that are pulled out cannot be transplanted and are not big enough to eat. Some of the carrots will get big enough to eat before others. Start pulling them to eat when they are big enough. Continue pulling to eat until either they are all gone or it is time to lift and store for the Winter.

For parsnips you should also thin to a row of single plants about 1 inch apart. The process then differs from carrots because parsnips are not useable until they are mature. When the seedlings are well established, 2/3 leaves, be ruthless and thin out to leave a row of single plants about 6 inches apart. Some prefer to do this in 2 stages, first thinning to 3 inches and later thinning to 6 inches. The final spacing is not critical. Personally I thin them to 4/5 inches. I find that 6 or 8 inche spacing reccomended by many produces roots that are too big for the kitchen on my soil.