Subject: Re: CILANTRO

From: [email-masked] (Dave Platt)
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 06:13:49 GMT

>  DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT CONDITIONS I SHOULD AVOID TO KEEP THE CILANTRO
>FROM GOING TO SEED ?      THANKS NOLA

The most important single thing you can do to ensure a long-season
harvest of cilantro is to pick a "slow-bolting" or "leaf" variety.

You _can_ raise cilantro by simply planting coriander seed out of your
kitchen spice rack (or coriander seed from a seed-seller) but the
chances are that it will bolt and set seed quite early in the season.
Coriander is a variety of the species which has been selected for rapid
and heavy seed production - this comes at the expense of leaf
production.

A better bet is to buy leaf cilantro seed (from a good herb-seed seller,
or a Chinese or Mexican grocery store).  This is a variety which has
been selected for heavy production of the low-growing robust leaves with
the best flavor, and for a reluctance to go to seed.  You'll get several
weeks' more growing time out of this variety, and often twice as much
(or more) good-tasting cilantro leaf.

Cilantro is a day-length-sensitive plant - long days of direct sunshine
are part of what triggers its flowering.  Planting it on the east or
west side of a building (so that it gets a half-day of shade) can stave
off the bolting to some extent.
--
Dave Platt    [email-masked]
      USNAIL: The 3DO Company, Systems Software group
              600 Galveston Drive
              Redwood City, CA  94063