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Cilantro needs its own space in the garden where you can harvest it and then let it go to seed. It grows fast in the cool weather of spring and fall, creating a rosette of lacy leaves. When the weather gets warm, the plant sends up a long, lanky flower stalk bearing flower clusters with white or pinkish blossoms that later produce coriander seeds. Plant cilantro in a bed devoted to herbs where it can reseed, or in a corner of the vegetable garden. In mild climates, cilantro makes a handsome winter companion to pansies; their leaves will withstand a light frost.
Quick Guide to Growing Cilantro
- Plant cilantro during the cool days of spring or fall.
- Grow cilantro in an area that receives full sun and has rich, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.2 to 6.8. Offer afternoon shade if you live in a warmer climate.
- Improve native soil by mixing in several inches of aged compost or other rich organic matter. For growing in containers, consider a premium bagged potting mix.
- Keep soil moist and use a soaker hose or drip irrigation if necessary.
- Encourage prolific leaf production by regularly feeding with a water-soluble plant food.
- Harvest cilantro leaves once they are large enough to eat. Avoid harvesting more than a third of the plant at any one time.
Soil, Planting, and Care
Start by choosing strong young Bonnie Plants® cilantro starter plants to give you an added measure of success in the garden. Bonnie cilantro is already well on its way to maturity and comes from a company with over a century of experience helping home gardeners grow their own food.
Grow cilantro in full sun, though it will also tolerate light shade in the South and Southwest where the sun is intense. In the South and Southwest, plant in the fall or early spring, about a month before the last frost. Fall is the ideal time to plant in zones 8, 9, and 10 because the plants will last through until the weather heats up in late spring. In the North, plant cilantro in late spring. When plants begin to bloom, the foliage will become scarce; for a steady harvest, set out plants every 3 to 4 weeks until the weather gets warm in spring, or until the first fall frost.
Plant cilantro in well-drained soil with a pH of 6.2 to 6.8. You can either conduct a soil test or simply improve your soil by mixing a few inches of aged compost-enriched Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose In-Ground Soil in with the top layer of your existing soil. If you plan to grow cilantro in a container, you'll have more success if you fill the pot with premium potting mix, such as Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose Container Mix which also contains lots of nutritious compost. Don't use in-ground or garden soil in pots, as it's too heavy.
Cilantro frequently self-sows. As seeds fall to the ground, little plants may pop up during the season and the following spring. One way to keep cilantro in check is to grow it indoors in a hydroponic (or water-based) system, like the Miracle-Gro® Twelve™ Indoor Growing System. Simple to use, it guides cilantro to produce an impressively large harvest. Plants go directly in the water, which circulates moisture, air, and nutrients to the roots, and a grow light provides all the light needed by the plants.
Troubleshooting
Cilantro occasionally has problems with aphids and whitefly, wilt, or mildew. For the insects, use insecticidal soap. To prevent or control wilt and mildew, make sure you clean up spent cilantro plants at the end of the season, and remove any infected plants as soon as possible.
One of the surprises that most gardeners get from cilantro is that it moves through its life cycle so quickly, especially in spring. If you are lucky enough to live in a mild winter climate, fall and winter give you the longest season to harvest. Once you understand this fast little plant, it's easy to manage. Give it its own patch in the garden where you can harvest, then ignore, then harvest again. Harvest while it's low, let it get tall when it wants to, then cut off the tall plants after the seeds drop to get it out of the way. This makes room for the new plants that start themselves from the fallen seeds. Or, of course, you can set out new plants every 3 to 4 weeks for as long as we have them in the stores, but the harvest and ignore technique will get you through the in-between times.
Harvest and Storage
You can harvest cilantro's foliage continually in the cooler months of spring and fall and through winter in areas without hard freezes. Harvest by cutting the leafy stems near ground level; most will be around 6 to 12 inches long. Avoid cutting more than one-third of the leaves at one time, or you may weaken the plant. While planting in premium Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics™ soil will provide a generous helping of nutrition to start, for best results, you'll want to begin feeding cilantro regularly with Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Edibles Plant Nutrition after 4 or 5 harvests. This will continue to provide both plants and soil with just the right amount and kind of nutrients. Another option is to fertilize with fish emulsion.
Harvest the seeds by clipping the brown, round seed heads; place upside down in a paper bag. In a few days, the round husks will dry and split in two, dropping the edible seed inside. Don't delay seed harvest, or the weak stems will fall over.
Uses
Growing cilantro adds a lot of healthy, fresh flavour to your kitchen. Freshly chopped cilantro is an excellent source of potassium, is low in calories, and is good for the digestive system. It is best to use fresh cilantro in cooking since it does not dry very well. Add chopped leaves at the last minute for maximum flavor. Cilantro blends well with mint, cumin, chives, garlic, and marjoram. Store by freezing the leaves in cubes of water or oil; you can dry them, too, but they lose a lot of their flavour this way, which explains why growing your own is far better than buying it from the spice rack.
Store coriander seeds in a cool cabinet or the refrigerator. Use them in curry, poultry, relishes, and pickles.
FAQs
Is it true that coriander and cilantro are the same?
Yes, coriander is the seed and cilantro is the leaf. Their flavors are quite different. You can harvest the seed after the plant flowers and round seeds form. Harvest and dry the seed to be ground into coriander.
I'm growing some of your cilantro. How do I know when it's ripe or ready to eat?
Cilantro is always ready. If plants are very young, avoid picking all of their leaves, or you will weaken them. After they are a few weeks old, pick a few leaves from each plant and add them to dishes as directed in recipes. You can also stir chopped leaves into bottled salsa to give it a fresh-made taste.
How can I have cilantro year-round?
Cilantro is a biennial, which means it grows leaves the first season, and then it flowers and dies the second. Set out plants in early fall for optimum growth. They will develop into round, leafy plants that look a lot like flat-leaved parsley, but the flavor is distinctly different. If the winter is mild, you'll have cilantro for months. Then in spring you will notice the plant growing taller and the leaves changing to a very lacy form. There will be white flowers on top, and after the seeds ripen, the plant will die. Seeds that fall to the ground in summer will germinate in fall, so the cycle begins again.To have a supply of cilantro in summer, you'll need to preserve it. Drying is not the best for cilantro. Instead, chop or puree the fresh leaves with olive oil. Store this in a heavy plastic container or freezer bag in the freezer for later use.
My cilantro plants are lanky and do not have many leaves. How do I get more leaves to grow?
It sounds like your cilantro has started to bloom. Once the weather begins to get warm in late spring or early summer, cilantro will transition from a round, leafy plant with parsley-like foliage into a taller, lacy-leaved plant with white flowers in clusters at the top. In a few weeks, you'll see round seeds forming. When harvested, these can be ground into coriander. If you leave them to mature, plants will fall to the ground and sprout again in the fall or early spring. While your plant will die after flowering, its offspring will take over, giving you a seasonal supply of flavorful foliage.
