In article .com,
"James" wrote:

Some of the ones I used lots of fertilizer had large tops but not much
bottom. Some others that didn't get all that N had tops that looked
like runts but did have some good bottoms.

So

plant or thin to a least 2" apart,

use low N fertilizer,

water as necessary.

I would have thought (and logic is only as good as its' premise) that
the tops and the root would have come into some sort of balance; volume
wise. I don't use pharmaceutical nitrogen but manure (this year it was
steer). The compost and mulch is grape pumace. Worms everywhere! The
root garden was my old lettuce garden but I decided to rotate the crop
this year. Sowed carrots but I never saw them. Small slugs (the size of
maggots) and rolly-pollies are the suspects. Beets are showing tops and
I think some of the parsnips may have survived. It's on drip irrigation
so the bed never goes dry.

I'm getting ready to sow carrots and parsnips again. If it's not too
late (region 9), I may try some pod radishes as well. I'm on a hillside
and the lower I go, the less sun there is. Here in N. California, we had
a late start to the season because of rain until May. Although it is
warmer than last year, it has been a cool year so far. With any luck we
will get another Indian summer, like last year, to carry us into
November.