How to Grow Cilantro

Can you imagine a tomato salsa without a generous sprinkling of the aromatic herb cilantro? You definitely can't. Cilantro is a must have herb that is used for flavoring and garnishing a lot many dishes. Without this essential herb, soups, salads and stews, will not look or taste as appetizing. It is also a good substitute for parsley for people who don't like it's flavor and aroma. Both the seeds and leaves of the cilantro plant is used in cooking and the cilantro leaves have a slightly bitter lemony flavor with great aroma. Although cilantro can be brought from any grocery store, how about growing cilantro in a garden? You will have a regular supply of fresh cilantro, and all you need to do is snip off a few leaves for your dish.

Growing Cilantro in a Garden

Many people think that growing cilantro is difficult, but if you have a patch of land in your garden that receives adequate amounts of sunshine, you can easily grow them. Cilantro requires well-drained soil and the leaves of the plant should be protected from direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day. It needs a frost-free climate to grow and so it is grown during the fall in tropical climates and in summer in milder climates. Thinking of growing cilantro in a pot? Well it's not a bad idea for people who live in an apartment to have a herb garden in a container. You just need to follow the same steps for growing cilantro in a garden and make sure that the container is a deep one with good potting soil in it.

Growing cilantro from seed is the best option as it grows quite prolifically from seeds. You can get a cilantro plant from a nursery but it is a big hassle to transplant it to your garden. You are sure to damage the roots of the cilantro plant during the transplantation process and it is very likely that your plant will die. So the best thing is to plant the seeds directly on the ground in the soil.

Carefully pluck out all weeds from the soil and mix some organic compost into the soil. Rake the soil with a spade and dig holes that are about half a centimeters deep. Once you are done preparing the soil in this way, sow the seeds into the holes made in the soil and plant them about 5 cm apart. Lightly cover the planted cilantro seeds with the raked soil and water it with a watering can. Make sure that you do not plant too many seeds at one place, because when the seeds germinate and come out as seedlings, it will not get enough space to grow. Cramped growing condition will also produce puny plants without big lush cilantro leaves.

Cilantro seeds need to remain moist so that it germinates quickly, so keep the soil moist at all times but do not overwater it. Cilantro seeds germinate in two to three weeks. At this point if you see that too many seedlings are growing together at a place, just pull out some of the extra plants. When the plants are around 5 cm in height, trim the plants so that they grow to their full height of 2 feet or so. For harvesting cilantro leaves, simply snip some tender leaves and stems and use it in your dish.

Growing cilantro at home is not that tough but you should keep certain things in mind. Cilantro plants are very heat sensitive, so you need to plant them in a location where it gets a fair amount of sunlight, but can also find shade during the afternoon. Planting cilantro in the shade of a tree is therefore a good option. Another tip for growing cilantro is to water the plant frequently, to prevent it from drying out. Now that you know how to grow cilantro, you can plant them in your herb garden and enjoy its unique flavor and aroma in your home cooked dishes.