I forgot to plant cilantro, but mother natures got my back
13.6 years ago cilantro, coriander, outdoor seed starting
Being busy with work and a new baby at home, I completely forgot to plant my cilantro. Though I got a little surprise when I pulled back the shredded leaves I used on my beds…I nice blanket of cilantro seedlings, almost like mother nature knew I was going to be lacking focus this season.
I was pretty good about picking my cilantro (or coriander at this point) at the end of the season a little prior to the flowers were completely dried out to allow for crop rotation. Crop rotation is the process of moving species of plants to alternate locations to prevent build-up of specie specific diseases, fungi, or miscellaneous annoying pests. By not planting the same plants in the location for a couple years this causes these undesirables to die off making it safer to plant at that location on the third year.
In the previous years I have been lazy and just let the plants self seed but after 3 years probably a good idea to move things around…oh well maybe next year.
How to save coriander/cilantro seeds from your garden
15 years ago cilantro, coriander, harvest, seed saving, seeds
Cilantro (at least that is what we call the plant in the United States) and the seed coriander as it is know to the rest of the world is the first plant I ever collected seeds from.
What I like about cilantro/coriander is that its flowers actually grow great and the bees seem to like them. As an added bonus the collection of seeds really couldn’t be easier. Like other plants I collect seeds on I let them mature as much as possible outdoors on their own and bring them indoors when the heavy rains come.
I give them a little extra time to dry by hanging the bunches upside down in my garage until I get around to the harvest.
To harvest simply find these flower shaped clusters of seeds and pull down to release the seeds and add to your awaiting container. If you don’t care as much how clean your seed collection is you can also run run hands down the whole plant from bottom to top. While this will drop many leaves in your collection, this is definitely the way to quickly harvest a large number of seeds.
Tags: cilantro, garden seeds, outdoor plants
