Cultivating Cilantro: A Guide to Growing Cilantro in Various Containers and Elevated Beds
Grow a lush, verdant cilantro patch in your own garden and elevate your culinary creations to new heights! This beloved herb, commonly called Chinese parsley, adds a lemony kick to Mexican, Mediterranean, Thai, and Asian dishes. Whether you're sowing seeds or planting seedlings, this guide covers everything you need to know for a bumper crop of cilantro.
Timing Your Planting
In the sun-baked South and Southwest, aim to plant cilantro in late autumn or early spring, about a month before the last frost. If you live in zones 8, 9, and 10, plant in the fall, as the plants will last until the heat starts building in late spring. If you're a Texan, this means November planting is for you! In cooler regions, aim for late spring. Keep in mind that when cilantro blooms, the leaves become scarce, so plan on setting out new plants every 3-4 weeks until the warm weather arrives or the first frost hits.
Growing Time
From seed, cilantro leaves are ready to be harvested in 3-4 weeks. With proper care, the entire process, including seed maturation, takes approximately 45 days. Cilantro seeds often self-sow, so expect little plants to pop up during the season and return in the spring. For year-round cilantro, sow seeds every 2-3 weeks starting in late spring.
How to Plant Cilantro
- Choose the right time and place for planting, keeping cool and sunny locations in mind. Texas gardeners, you can plant in February for an April harvest, followed by a September planting for a November harvest.
- Select a container that is deep and wide, ideally 18 inches wide and at least 10-12 inches deep.
- Sow seeds about 0.6 cm deep, 6-8 inches apart. If you're planting raised beds, space the rows about 1 foot apart. Be gentle with the seedlings, as cilantro has a long taproot.
- Water and fertilize the seedlings when they reach about 2 inches in height.
- Harvest when the stems are 4 to 6 inches long, trimming up to 2/3 of the leaves each week. With proper care, you can potentially harvest four crops of cilantro from a single pot.
Growing Cilantro from Cuttings
For a fun and novel approach, you can grow cilantro from cuttings. Simply place cilantro stems in a clean glass of water, and the roots will eventually grow, allowing you to plant them in soil once they reach 3-4 inches long.
Container and Grow Bag Gardening
Cilantro thrives in its own pot and makes an ideal candidate for container gardening due to its preference for space. Grow bags, like those provided in Gardenuity grow kits, offer excellent drainage and portability, making them a fantastic option for growing cilantro.
Caring for Cilantro
Cilantro requires full sun (avoiding overheating) and well-drained, crumbly, light soil with a pH of 6.2-6.8. Cilantro bolts (produces flowers and seeds) when temperatures exceed 85°F and day length is long, so it's best to sow seeds every few weeks for a continuous harvest.
Grow Pro Tips
- Plant late in the spring to minimize bolting, as summer heat can cause premature flowering.
- Be careful not to over-fertilize, as cilantro doesn't require a lot of nutrients.
- Allow the flowers to go to seed (takes about 90 days) and harvest them for use as coriander spice.
- Pinching back young cilantro plants encourages fuller, bushier plants.
Cilantro Companion Plants
Cilantro grows well with aphid repellant plants and those that produce a lot of nitrogen for the soil. Consider growing cilantro with chervil, sweet alyssum, string beans, pole beans, wax beans, peas, clover, or sunflowers. Avoid planting near lavender, thyme, or rosemary.
Sources:1. Fine Gardening2. Gardening Know How3. Gardenuity4. SF Gate5. GardenGuides
- To supplement your culinary skills, consider container gardening with a cilantro kit, as it thrives in its own pot and is an ideal candidate for this method.
- Casual gardeners or urban dwellers can even grow cilantro indoors, using a fun technique of growing it from cuttings placed in a glass of water.
- With a preference for space and the right lifestyle, you can cultivate various food-and-drink ingredients, such as cilantro, alongside home-and-garden favorites to create a versatile and lush garden efficiently.
