I did much the same thing the first time I planted carrots
If crowded , they all/ none will never get full sized.
Go into the side of the plants with a garden fork, and "loosen the soil" until you have one in place about every 3 inches, called "thinning the crop" .
Save the "thinnings" for transplanting elsewhere .
Then take a "dibble stick" (or a pencil)to poke a hole in the soil and transplant one of the carrots that you have "thinned"/saved, and place in the hole
and then slightly compress the soil around the transplant, and then add water to moisture the soil with, or without, fertilizer..
The transplants should recover within the week and grow to full size.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll see if I’ve got enough spare dirt to fill up another bucket or two. They’re all jammed together - it’s bad.
Maybe I can get a few to mature for Thanksgiving dinner and freeze some for Christmas.
Well, we’ll see.
I tried replanting thinned carrots a few times, and they never took.
And the ONLY times I had decent sized carrots was indeed when I did thin them out when the greens were a few inches high. If they got much bigger it seemed to disrupt the soil too much and the remaining ones didn’t thrive as well.
Carrots are weird. And they are a long season.