Despite having land available to me, it's not really suitable for growing anything (the biggest being my landlord, and the second biggest being my landlord's lawn service). This past spring, I got around that by growing my first vegetables in containers. The lettuces and bell peppers positively thrived. The beets and carrots, however, were pitiful and got me the "see, I told you you were crazy" look from my detractors. I'm starting to think about what seeds to order for next spring, and I'm wondering if there are any ideas/tricks to growing carrots in containers. I plan to pick them when they're young, and have "true baby carrots" instead of the mature carrots whittled down to thumb size. I can't seem to find info on carrots in containers, but I can't find anything that says "Don't grow carrots in containers" either.

 I have never seen carrots grow in containers. Carrots are not the an easy veggie to grow. They are slow to germinate. Need to be thinned out in order to give them room to grow. You would need a large, deep container to grow very many carrots.  They like rich soil. Also, I believe that baby carrots are a special variety of carrots, not 100% sure. Babs

I've never grown carrots in containers, but they need loose soil and thinning, as Babs said. I've read that they need a container about twice as deep as they're going to grow. There are varieties that grow short and thick rather than long and thin. They may work better in a container. 

Baby carrots are just carrots harvested young.  

Here's a short pdf file I found that might help you plan a container garden: Container Vegetable Gardens 

I belong to the EarthBox forum. Google EarthBox and you'll learn about this type of container gardening. Anyhow, some of the members grew carrots in their EarthBoxes.

There are several good books on container gardening including one by P. Allen Smith. If you check your library you could most likely find books on container gardening.

There are directions on the internet for making copy cat EarthBoxes. The neat thing about an EarthBox is that you don't have to water it daily.

 I'm sure this can be done.  Mel Bartholomew developed that Square Foot Gardening system that was the basis for the EDTV series.  Many people who didn't have "ground" would do it with a raised box system on patios, etc. and they grew carrots in theirs.  Burpee sells seeds that are for tiny fingerling carrots that are meant to be harvested as babies; looks like these wouldn't require as much depth to grow.

My container garden last spring relied on coffee cans, milk jugs, and a few 5-gallon buckets to hold my plants. It didn't occur to me at the time that root vegetables need a lot of room to grow. It was my first time doing it and it was pretty spur-of-the-moment and adapting what information I could find to my situation. The learning curve has been huge. I joined a container gardening email group, but I left it quickly. The atmosphere was not, well, it wasn't neighborly.

 I wonder if I "stacked" containers if it would be enough. I'm thinking about cutting out the bottom of a coffee can, stacking it on top of another coffee can, and taping them tightly together.

Joyous:

 I wonder if I "stacked" containers if it would be enough. I'm thinking about cutting out the bottom of a coffee can, stacking it on top of another coffee can, and taping them tightly together.

 

I don't see why that wouldn't work as long as you can seal the seams well to keep water from leaking out before it gets to the bottom of the container.  

Joyous, why not try the carrots in the 5 gallon buckets, then use the shallower coffee cans for things like lettuces?  Just an idea.

I could, except I have so few 5 gallon buckets, and I was going to use them for tomatoes. Buckets are always a handy thing to have, so I'll keep my eyes open for more (that are free!). Thanks for the idea!