I just bought a cilantro plant - I'm not sure if I like it or hate it, it varies with my

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
mood, but at 25 cents, it was worth taking a chance. Now, in there I see a wierd-looking stalk coming out of one or two of the stems, almost like parsely. Is that what is going to become the flower, and/or should I cut it off?

I also bought parsley so I can make my own tabouli. Those were 6 for $1... 'love July clearance sales at the stands.

 
Cilantro apparently does not like the long days we get up here and just becomes impossible to grow,

UNLESS you are after the seeds. Unilke the regions of California and Mexico, it just thinks we are too hot for too long up here. I grow it and let it go to seed and collect the best coriander pods for the next cooking season.

I gave up after the first year, trying to harvest the leaves, but this discovery turned my planting effort into a better bonus.

 
In California it is usually grown in fall, winter and spring. It bolts in summer. It is a very short

lived plant in the best of cases, so if you like it you must plant it often, like every month.

Parsley on the other hand should go all season, if it's the curly type and not the Italian. It will even winter over, then produce more leaves for a while in spring before bolting. It flowers the second year, so you can get new plants started while the old ones are getting ready to flower.

 
Bolt? Do you mean a growth spurt, and it's already past its prime?

When it flowers, does that mean it's done and will die and not come up again the rest of the season?

Also, Mexico and California are hotter than here, so I'm a little confused by Marg's post.

Oh well, a quarter down the drain ;0) I'll plant it anyway and see what happens. Even if I only use the green that I have now, it's probably more than I'd ever use in 6 months. Smells like bug repellant to me.

 
"Bolt" means it stops growing leaves and sends up a flower stalk. It won't come back after that.

I don't know how they grow so much of it in Mexico because it sure doesn't like the heat here.

Try chopping up tomatoes with onion, fresh cilantro and jalapeno, with a squeeze of lime. Fresh salsa. You may become a cilantro addict.

 
They don't really get a lot hotter than our major heat days but our days are much longer. For

instance, 100+ degree days are not that unusual here, but they start at 5:15 and end at 9:30. Not much further north and the days start at 4:30 and end at 10 pm. That could be exhausting for some plants.

I was always puzzled by cilantro's not growing here so I did some research on it and there is a very logical theory that it just doesn't like the long days, even though it likes the heat, just not for long.

You might be able to get one round of cilantro done if you plant it early and the spring is warm. But that's it.

When it bolts (goes all rangy, flowers and seeds), just let it carry on until the seeds get large enough to harvest.

Yes, parsley works well here too. I pick parsley sometimes into December and it's back again, sometimes in late February. Arugula as well. Both are very skilled at seeding themselves.

Dill still puzzles me. Where I come from, further north, it grew like weeds in the back lanes. One would be laughed at for planting it. Here, it will do nothing. However, in the Caribbean, where one would think it to be too hot, I amazed all my neighbours by being able to grow it very successfully.

 
The cilantro I buy grown locally is sold with roots. They don't try to keep it going. The pots I

grow don't last long before bolting, even in the winter.

 
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