Coriander

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[TIGA84]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'd love to help, but I'm in the same boat, my friend.

If I want Coriander with anything, it's an 80p bunch regardless of how small an amount I want, as any plant in a pot will be dead within minutes of it being unwrapped.

[227bhp]

You have to grow it from seed, it only has a short life. Once you've bought it already grown it's ready to eat or die, you chose which.

[Sheets Tabuer]

It's like the timid deer of the plant world, once it's stressed it will bolt and go to seed or drop dead.

Things that stress it include:

Too much light
Not enough light
Too much water
Not enough water
Too much heat
Not enough heat
Looking at it
Touching it
Breathing on it
Being in the same house as it
Thinking about it

Best to just buy it as and when needed.

[Nimby]

It grows easily outdoors and self-seeds; ours comes up every year in the veg plot without fail.
Only the young leaves have that lovely aromatic flavour. Once it gets tall and flowers the leaves look different and just have a vaguely lemony taste.

[Mobile Chicane]

It's fairly easy to grow indoors just using the coriander seeds you'd buy as whole spices. Stick a few in some compost, water and wait.

But - it bolts to seed almost as soon as you look at it. I'm sure commercial crops are sprayed with a plant hormone to retard this process.

In the domestic setting I find it works best if you sow every fortnight for continuous cropping.

[PositronicRay]

We eat a lot of coriander and buy it frozen. I have grown my own but need a huge patch to keep up with my coriander habit. We do the same with spinach (another good curry ingredient)

[soad]

Hello I'm soad, and also a plant killer!

I reckon it isn't a proper compost in those tiny pots...or coriander is way too temperamental.

Other herbs can lasts ages, relatively speaking. Try rosemary and dump it outdoors (not during the winter, obviously).

[dontlookdown]

Coriander is a bit tricky as others have noted. Goes to seed in a jiffy.

But from your OP it sounds like you might be overwatering it a fair bit. Only needs enough to keep the compost moist.

May not be the whole story but it's a good place to start.

[227bhp]

soad said:

Hello I'm soad, and also a plant killer!

I reckon it isn't a proper compost in those tiny pots...or coriander is way too temperamental.

Other herbs can lasts ages, relatively speaking. Try rosemary and dump it outdoors (not during the winter, obviously).

Rosemary is fine outside all year round, it's an evergreen.

[prand]

227bhp said:

Rosemary is fine outside all year round, it's an evergreen.

I don't bother growing it because its a fussy bugger. I get a big bunch from the Asian supermarket round the corner for about 60p and it lasts for a week or so in the fridge.

Great herb though. Love it in curries, chillies, salsas, and asian dishes.

[Jambo85]

The way the supermarkets grow coriander in pots isn't really the way it likes to grow, which is part of the problem. Each seed can grow into a massive plant and as such it likes to have a lot of space and put down deep tap roots (it's a member of the carrot family) which those little pots wouldn't even allow one plant to do never mind the 20 or so that are there.

The supermarkets must have found that growing it as densely as they do gets them the most acceptable leafage in minimum time.

Same story with parsley (also a carrot).

Only real solution is to grow it outside, or sow thinly in a massive pot.

[TheGuru]

I have it in the garden, it grows like a weed. Loads of the stuff and it tastes so much better than bought stuff.

[227bhp]

prand said:

227bhp said:

Rosemary is fine outside all year round, it's an evergreen.

I don't bother growing it because its a fussy bugger. I get a big bunch from the Asian supermarket round the corner for about 60p and it lasts for a week or so in the fridge.

Great herb though. Love it in curries, chillies, salsas, and asian dishes.

You put Rosemary in those dishes? How weird. Growing it is like falling off a log.

[soad]

227bhp said:

You put Rosemary in those dishes? How weird. Growing it is like falling off a log.

He's a wrong one.

[HTP99]

Never have an issue with it, I buy already potted, it sits on the windowsill in a herb box thing and I water as and when, I used up the last lot this morning when feeding my daughters Guinea Pigs (they love it), I think it was bought 2 weeks ago.