Hi,
I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?
Thanks for any help,

Davlo

Hi! Cilantro doesn't like high temperatures; mine goes to seed quickly in hot
weather, so I've decided to grow it in the winter, fall, spring here in
California.

Susan H.

Davlo wrote:

Hi,
I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?
Thanks for any help,

Davlo

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo"
wrote:

Hi,
I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?
Thanks for any help,


Too late. Your plants have 'bolted' - changed their form
and produced flowers with the ultimate goal of producing
seeds. It's a one-way street, they can't go back.

Cilantro does this VERY quickly.

You can buy 'slow-bolt' cilantro seeds from Pinetree Gardens
(and probably other places) or you can just cut your
cilantro as soon as it looks like cilantro....

It may not bolt as quickly in cooler (spring/fall)
temperatures, although I'm not sure of this.

Pat

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 07:46:11 -0400, Pat Meadows
wrote:

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo"
wrote:

I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?

Too late. Your plants have 'bolted' - changed their form
and produced flowers with the ultimate goal of producing
seeds. It's a one-way street, they can't go back.

Cilantro does this VERY quickly.

You can buy 'slow-bolt' cilantro seeds from Pinetree Gardens
(and probably other places) or you can just cut your
cilantro as soon as it looks like cilantro....

It may not bolt as quickly in cooler (spring/fall)
temperatures, although I'm not sure of this.

I haven't noticed a great deal of difference between 'slow-bolt' and
plain ol'. Summer here is just too hot. I'm going to plant some right
now in hope of a fall harvest.

To Davlo -- you may note that if the supermarket cilantro is sold with
roots on, the bundles are of *many* plants. So each marketable plant
is young and has maybe a dozen good-sized leaf stalks. If you want
lots of cilantro, you gotta plant lots of cilantro. And, for the most
part, it isn't "cut and come again" like many other herbs.

When it begins to flower, it's culinary usefulness is over (I beg to
be corrected). Don't remove flowers; just wait to collect seeds for
the next crop. Cilantro produces seeds very generously. And of course,
the seeds are what we call coriander -- a useful spice in that form.

"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 07:46:11 -0400, Pat Meadows
wrote:

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo"
wrote:

I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon
sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I
buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that
form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves
growing?

Too late. Your plants have 'bolted' - changed their form
and produced flowers with the ultimate goal of producing
seeds. It's a one-way street, they can't go back.

Cilantro does this VERY quickly.

You can buy 'slow-bolt' cilantro seeds from Pinetree Gardens
(and probably other places) or you can just cut your
cilantro as soon as it looks like cilantro....

It may not bolt as quickly in cooler (spring/fall)
temperatures, although I'm not sure of this.

I haven't noticed a great deal of difference between 'slow-bolt' and
plain ol'. Summer here is just too hot. I'm going to plant some right
now in hope of a fall harvest.

To Davlo -- you may note that if the supermarket cilantro is sold with
roots on, the bundles are of *many* plants. So each marketable plant
is young and has maybe a dozen good-sized leaf stalks. If you want
lots of cilantro, you gotta plant lots of cilantro. And, for the most
part, it isn't "cut and come again" like many other herbs.

When it begins to flower, it's culinary usefulness is over (I beg to
be corrected). Don't remove flowers; just wait to collect seeds for
the next crop. Cilantro produces seeds very generously. And of course,
the seeds are what we call coriander -- a useful spice in that form.



This is all very informative. Thanks to all of you. Looks like I'll be
getting my cilantro at the supermarket for the rest of the season, and let
my own go to seed. I live in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure if our summers
qualify as too hot but I'll try a fall/spring crop and see how that fares.

Thanks,
Davlo

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 11:26:47 -0400, "Davlo"
wrote:




This is all very informative. Thanks to all of you. Looks like I'll be
getting my cilantro at the supermarket for the rest of the season, and let
my own go to seed. I live in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure if our summers
qualify as too hot but I'll try a fall/spring crop and see how that fares.


You can easily grow it indoors on a sunny windowsill. I do
this quite often.

Pat

This is all very informative. Thanks to all of you. Looks like I'll be
getting my cilantro at the supermarket for the rest of the season, and let
my own go to seed. I live in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure if our summers
qualify as too hot but I'll try a fall/spring crop and see how that fares.

If it works like lettuce, I have read that what triggers bolting
is the cumulative amount of sunlight, not heat per se.

In Dallas, cilantro & parsley do well in January...

Hope this helps,
--
Bob Mounger

In article ,
Susan and/or Bruce Harvey wrote:

Hi! Cilantro doesn't like high temperatures; mine goes to seed quickly in hot
weather, so I've decided to grow it in the winter, fall, spring here in
California.


Mine peters out in high temperatures too but this can be mitigated
somewhat by frequent watering and partial shade (but still enough light).

We plant cilantro throughout the growing season every 3-4 weeks. This
provides a steady supply of fresh leaves, and the late summer/early fall
plantings overwinter nicely in our Oregon (zone 3) climate.

Cilantro REALLY wants to go to seed quickly... you can let some plants
flower and the seed is magically now called coriander seed!

"Davlo" wrote in message news:W69Ya.8878$ug.2038@lakeread01...

"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 07:46:11 -0400, Pat Meadows
wrote:

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo"
wrote:

I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon
sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I
buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that
form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves
growing?

Too late. Your plants have 'bolted' - changed their form
and produced flowers with the ultimate goal of producing
seeds. It's a one-way street, they can't go back.

Cilantro does this VERY quickly.

You can buy 'slow-bolt' cilantro seeds from Pinetree Gardens
(and probably other places) or you can just cut your
cilantro as soon as it looks like cilantro....

It may not bolt as quickly in cooler (spring/fall)
temperatures, although I'm not sure of this.

I haven't noticed a great deal of difference between 'slow-bolt' and
plain ol'. Summer here is just too hot. I'm going to plant some right
now in hope of a fall harvest.

To Davlo -- you may note that if the supermarket cilantro is sold with
roots on, the bundles are of *many* plants. So each marketable plant
is young and has maybe a dozen good-sized leaf stalks. If you want
lots of cilantro, you gotta plant lots of cilantro. And, for the most
part, it isn't "cut and come again" like many other herbs.

When it begins to flower, it's culinary usefulness is over (I beg to
be corrected). Don't remove flowers; just wait to collect seeds for
the next crop. Cilantro produces seeds very generously. And of course,
the seeds are what we call coriander -- a useful spice in that form.



This is all very informative. Thanks to all of you. Looks like I'll be
getting my cilantro at the supermarket for the rest of the season, and let
my own go to seed. I live in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure if our summers
qualify as too hot but I'll try a fall/spring crop and see how that fares.

Thanks,
Davlo

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo" wrote:

I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?

You need to re-seed every few weeks, or try to keep the plant cool,
which is what keeps big leaves.

Cilantro has become a 'welcome weed' around my area. The seeds that
fell survived an extremely harsh winter and came back in the
springtime. I would keep the flowers and let the plant re-seed and
eventually naturalize to your own soil conditions.

The flowers also attract beneficial aphid-eating insects such as
hover-flys (although it's hilarious seeing a bumblebee land on the
flowers...he practically bends a 2 ft tall plant halfway to the ground
lol )

Dan