How to Grow Endless Cilantro

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I enjoy growing fresh herbs. They don’t require a lot of attention and you get a lot of flavor for limited efforts. However, one thing always had me puzzled. Whenever I would plant cilantro (coriander) it would rapidly bolt, go to seed, in hot weather. So I’d remove the plant from my herb bed. I wondered how it is that in tropical climates you can buy fresh cilantro throughout the year. How do they do it?

Well, thanks to my friend Ronda, I recently learned the secret to growing cilantro throughout the summer. Ronda is a great gardener, and she recently stopped by with an assortment of early garden goodies, including the cilantro in the photo above. Notice that it’s flowering and would soon have gone to seed if she hadn’t picked it.

Ronda answered my cilantro question. One of her previous neighbors was a Vietnamese gentleman who shared fresh cilantro with her from his garden throughout the summer. He told her that he lets the cilantro go to seed. It reseeds itself in the bed and voila! New, young plants spring up. That way he has an ongoing supply of fresh, tender cilantro throughout the summer. Indeed, the cilantro in the photo above are from Ronda’s fall garden. She’s going to let the remaining plants go to seed and then reseed themselves.

I’m going to give it a try. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enjoy a steady supply throughout the summer (if the dog doesn’t dig up the bed, that is). I’ll keep you posted.

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