"Pat Meadows" wrote in message
...

Cilantro bolts to seed very rapidly. I wouldn't buy little
plants - by the time you buy them, they're probably just
about finished.


Hmm, that's good to know. These were really piddly looking plants, so I
assumed they were still growing. I guess I thought they would be more plush
like the basil was (I *did* say I was a neophyte :-)).

I start seeds and grow cilantro indoors on a sunny
windowsill. It takes just a little more than one month from
sowing the seed to harvesting the cilantro.

It's pretty easy to have a constant supply of cilantro: I
grow it in foil loaf pans - they fit nicely on a windowsill
(with another pan under them to catch the drips). I poked
drainage holes in the loaf pans with a pencil.


Thanks for the tip! I never thought of using foil loaf pans for growing
things. They're cheap enough to buy many of!

If I start one loafpan of cilantro each week (I have six of
them), I have a continuous supply of cilantro. The seed
wants darkness to germinate (or so I'm informed, anyway, by
Ann Reilly's 'Parks Success with Seed'), so I cover the
loafpan with foil until the seed sprouts. Then I put it in
the windowsill.


Do they grow during winter, too? We have very cold winters (I'm north of
North Dakota) so I would be a bit worried about them freezing to death.
Apparently mine have all died of sun-stroke, though, so I may as well try
out all the forms of death by exposure.

For economy's sake, I usually buy 'coriander seeds' in a
grocery store and use them - although I did buy seeds from
Pinetree once and they don't bolt as quickly, so they're
probably worth it.

Pat

I never thought coriander spices would grow. I had always thought they were
irradiated or something like that. I can buy fairly cheap coriander from
the scoop and weigh all year round, so I'd have a constant supply!

Thanks again for the advice!

rona