I have it volunteer under a small tree. I suppose that that helps cool it some. Still, I assume that it will want to bolt anyway after a while and produce those seeds.
Perhaps regular heavy harvesting will slow the seeding down. In any case, you can start new sowings all season.

S H A D E

Also watering at late evening with cool water can cool off the soil. If humidity is low, also mist the leves after sundown.
Whatever can cool you down , can also cool plants down.

Wayne

Thanks. Daggone it! Doesn't it always happen that the plants we want to cultivate often seem to do better on their own when they find their own homes! Was your volunteer left over from the year before or was it maybe a bird planting?

I'm definitely going to keep in mind that they can naturalize and reseed themselves under the right conditions, though right now I have enough seeds for months and months. We also have some shady spots where I can put a container, hadn't thought of moving it off the deck.

cyrus_gardener

I have sometimes watered my lettuce with refrigerated water to keep it cool and producing longer, so maybe that trick would work with cilantro too, if done faithfully.

It took me awhile to realize, but I love having my cilantro bolt. The flowers are very tasty in salads, they draw polinators I seldom see on other plants and the coriander seeds they yield are fantastic fresh and dried.

I just start new cilantro ever 8 weeks and now interplant it amongst my perennials out front.

anney, They volunteer HEAVILY yearly.

My cilantro keeps self seeding. It is getting ready
to make flowers. I have never sucessfully grown it
when it gets hot. I was looking at my Johnny's seed
catalog, and they have something called culantro. It's
suppose to taste similiar to cilantro. Maybe that
can take the heat.

Mine self sows and sprouts by itself around Nov-Dec, right now most of it is flowering or going to seed, but as mentioned above, flowers are pretty and they attract both pollinators and lady bugs. I do use fast bolting cilantro in the front just for that purpose, I also sow slow bolting for the leaves on the back garden. I have a lot of it, and I also love the fresh seeds, they do taste very good, and a bit of a cross between coriander and cilantro flavors.

Nothing I do will make it grow in the summer, but one can extend its season to maybe mid spring around here. Planting in semi shade might work, but it does like sun (cool sun). Quite unfortunate since the flavor does not preserve well and when the garden is bursting with tomatoes and peppers for salsa there is no cilantro! I used culantro when I lived in Central america, it is the same flavor but MUCH stronger, so if you needed let's say 1/2 cup cilantro, you will need only a minced teaspoon of culantro (for example). I am going to get some, it grows in the tropics where it is never cold so I am counting on it growing well during the summer.

dicot & wayne

I think that's what I'll do -- make succession plantings this year and scatter the seeds in other places in the fall in hopes they'll find a permanent replenishment home!

roper

Let us know if you try culantro and how you like it. Cabrita says it's stronger.

cabrita

I plan to freeze as much as possible of the unused cilantro in plastic bags and then cut off from the frozen chunk what I need. It should work with a lot of dishes, though not those that need fresh.

I hope I didn't plant mine so late that I'll get a poor showing because of the heat, though maybe a fall planting would make up for it.

I just planted cilantro seeds this evening in between my tomato plants. Hopefully, the plants will get large enough to shade out the cilantro before the extreme heat sets in. The tomatoes are very close together so I shouldn't have to worry for too long...

"I also love the fresh seeds, they do taste very good, and a bit of a cross between coriander and cilantro"

Coriander and cilantro are actually the same plant. The seed is usually called coriander while the leaf material is called cilantro. The seed, once dried, can be ground or used whole in various recipes.
When the seed is ripe I cut the entire plant and hang it to dry. When the plant is dry I whack it against the inside of a plastic tub and the seeds fall off. You can then winnow it to remove anything other then the seeds.

Jon

It's a shame that in our hot summers, the cilantro gives up just when the tomatoes are producing. It's hard to have both while making Annie's Salsa. I have to buy fresh cilantro to make salsa. I don't think frozen will do. I really don't use cilantro in anything else.
Donna

Could hang shade cloth over it to reduce the temperature somewhat too...

"I also love the fresh seeds, they do taste very good, and a bit of a cross between coriander and cilantro"

I think Cabrita's point is the immature seeds have a slightly different taste than that of dried coriander, one that has more of a hint of the cilantro leaf to it.

I was unaware of the existance of culantro before this thread - I'll have to give that a try.

caavonlady:
I freeze chopped cilantro for use in Annie's salsa every year.
My cilantro wintered over and I just put 2 cups in the freezer (in 1/4 c. baggies).
Salsa is the only reason I grow it too, we don't care for it fresh or the seeds, but it MUST be in salsa! :+)
It works fine for cooked stuff.

Deanna

A few years ago, I found a recipe for lacinato (dinosaur) kale with cilantro. Just saute some sliced onion in olive oil, add the kale (washed, tough rib removed, cut) cook with very small amount of water, add chopped cilantro a few minutes before the kale is done. I also add it to some other stewey type dishes like chicken with corn and tomatoes (Creole style). The bunches sold at the market were always too much for the salsa or whatever else I was making and I used to end up paying to compost the excess.

Yes, what I meant is that I have used the immature seeds, right after flowering, wanting cilantro and not coriander seeds, and found that if you grind them up it is a blend of both tastes, and can be still used in salsa fresca quite nicely.

I have myself recently frozen two quart size zip lock bags with chopped fresh cilantro. It will probably disappoint me on salsa fresca but I am hoping it is OK for cooked salsa, or any cooked stews that do use cilantro.

I am well aware that coriander seed produced cilantro. I have been using seed (coriander for cooking) from the 4 oz bags I get at middle eastern and indian shops, and that is sold as coriander seed. They are really inexpensive and I used them for the fast bolting one, to get the cilantro flowers. I make a special effort to give flowers for the winter crew of bees. It seems to be paying off so far, and most of my cilantro is now either seeding or flowering, or giving up the ghost.....time to sprout the basil now.

I will give freezing it a try. My cilantro is already trying to bolt since we had some warm weather for a while. It has cooled down now so I hope to keep the cilantro going for a while. Next time I will plant it under my almond tree in the garden. It's dormant in the winter but it will shade the cilantro when it gets hot. It's always worth a try.
Donna

Here's my 2 cents. I grow it nearly year around. It is a great crop to attract benificials to the garden but quickly bolts in the heat Mid April till Mid Sept must sow every 30days. But reseeds and comes up volunteer starting in late oct and will make a nice mound and hold over all winter till late April early May when it will flower. So it loves the cool weather of early winter early spring and will survice the occasional 20s in mid winter. Parsly is another cool weather crop dies back in the heat of summer comes alive in the fall thru spring then bolts this time of year and reseeds. The seeds sprout in the fall.Rodger