Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Growing Cilantro



I have started an herb and vegetable garden in a small plot in my backyard. I planted peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, green peppers, zucchini, strawberries, rosemary, basil and cilantro - most of which I have never grown before. I am not a seasoned gardener so it is an experiment to see what will grow. Cilantro is one of the new plants that I have never tried before. Just yesterday I was looking at it and saw that in the middle of the plant a tall furry stalk had shot up - after Naomi commented that hers had done the same I decided to do some research.
Here is a good website that gives information about growing cilantro. But in short, it looks like cilantro is more difficult to grow and must be reseeded every three weeks or so if you want it to grow throughout the summer. It is a plant that does not like really hot weather so when it gets hot it "bolts to seed" or sends up the stalk with seeds on it. The seeds of cilantro are actually coriander that you can cook with - so when it bolts you can either reseed the seeds for more cilantro or use the coriander to cook in the kitchen.

Also when cutting the cilantro to use start cutting on the outside first and make your way in, I made a rookie mistake last year of cutting all over and the end result was dead cilantro (this is a joint post, can you tell?)

Anyone have any other great growing tips?

3 comments:

  1. Cilantro! So versatile, great read, thanks.

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  2. I'm starting my herb garden next week so this was extremely helpful. I never knew cilantro and coriander were from the same plant. Thanks for the heads up!

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  3. Photos, please. I would love to see the before, during and after.

    ReplyDelete

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