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I started many plants from seed and some of them starting going to flowers early. A bunch produced very nice leaves for my cooking. Now, they are all turning to flowers and now seeds. Can I stop this? I tried snipping some that showed flowers, but those plants didn't produce nice leaves, just thicker stalks that wanted to flower. Did I do something wrong?
Pinch off the flowers asap. As the plant grows, you need to periodically pinch out the growing tips to encourage a bushy plant and to prevent it from going to seed.
You may have planted too late. Let the plants that are producing seeds go and dry the mature seeds.
Celantro seeds are coriander, I grind mine in a pepper grinder.
I've had so-so luck with it too. It seems it's very fussy - likes sun, but not too warm either. You get a particularly warm afternoon, and forget it.
I've even tried the specific "slow-bolt" stuff and one day there's great leafy plants. Next day the leaves look like they've shrunk and there's flower-heads developing. Overnight. Frustrating stuff. I think it's because we all wait too long, thinking it'll get bigger and bushier but it's probably best to just use the leaves once they look pretty good. About 6 or so inches tall. Beyond that, you're pushing your luck too much.
Cilantro bolts in the heat. I have had better luck planting it early in the season, in a pot on my front porch. I planted Cilantro in April this year, we have frost until early May. It did pretty well. I am able to keep it out of the frost by keeping it on the porch. By the start of June it was bolting.
I started many plants from seed and some of them starting going to flowers early. A bunch produced very nice leaves for my cooking. Now, they are all turning to flowers and now seeds. Can I stop this? I tried snipping some that showed flowers, but those plants didn't produce nice leaves, just thicker stalks that wanted to flower. Did I do something wrong?
Hi Skatergirl,
Cilantro is notorious. Sow them when the ground thaws or even winter sow. My Cilantro cam up from seeds of last year so I will just winter sow them.
The best way to enjoy cilantro all summer is by sowing seeds every three or four weeks, so that each plant is in a different stage of its life cycle.
Still pinch flower buds off as soon as they appear to extend the useful life of each plant, but the plants will eventually bolt to the point where they're useless, no matter how diligent of a pincher you are.
Cilantro is a cool weather plant. Go figure how it was cultivated for salsa, when pepper and tomatoes ripen in summer?!
(Don't mean it doesn't have other uses, but you know...)
Try planting some more and hope you have a long autumn. When I lived in Louisiana, with its very hot summers, cilantro did much better in the fall of the year. You can also try planting it with the maximum amount of shade it will tolerate, and with cool roots. Roots can be kept cool by planting it among sprawling plants or at the edge of, and slightly under a raised building.
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