Such a wonderful plant. It gives us it's leaf as a garnish, then when it is ready, it offers up simple flowers and the wonderful seed for flavouring curries. And then when it finally dies back it gives us it's wonderful intensely flavored roots for adding to Asian cooking. Long live Cilantro !
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My favourite herb! Forget the lettuce! I make salads with cilantro instead of lettuce .

Linda

And when the Cilantro goes to seed in the summer I substitute Vietnamese Coriander which spreads out, gets large so I have a continuous supply until fall when some of the regular Cilantro reseeds.

[mention]Gardadore[/mention] how long can you keep a pot of Vietnamese Coriander going? It is said to be a tender perennial, so should be able to overwinter in the house.

I have tried to grow rau ram (a.k.a. Vietnamese coriander) indoors twice, once in soil, once in hydro, and both times the plants were spider mite magnets - spider mites show up out of nowhere, and cover the things! These, and plants do the same thing indoors, but I never have that problem outside - makes no sense.

Outside, it grows well - I just get it from the Asian market, and root it. I tried it in a small SIP one time, and the one plant, while it grew huge, totally filled up the 1 cu ft container solid with roots! So now, I grow it in the ground. I never have any luck with cilantro - it bolts before it has many leaves. This year, I had one that didn't bolt soon, but it also didn't grow very much - must be the heat.

I sow regular cilantro one pot after another in summer because it bolts so quickly. Then, the bees and other tiny fliers come to the flowers.
Using the roots is new to me. Glad you mentioned it.

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention] glad to hear it should root easily from cuttings. I have had it in a pot, moved a couple of times to different locations, and the last time I tried to lift it, the roots had come through the drainage holes and were so embedded in the ground that I decided to leave it where it was! Will need to take cuttings if I want to try it in the house. Thanks for the tip on spider mites, will be on the look out. Usually, I have no trouble with them, unless I bring a new plant in from an outside source like a box store.

Unfortunately, I'm not organized enough to make successive plantings of cilantro, which I do prefer. It used to bolt and self seed for a few years, but I guess I must have picked it too intensively and not left any to mature.

Cilantro is one of my favorite herbs. I pity those people who can’t stand the taste of it.

I would be interested to know how they grow it commercially. I wonder if I would have better luck growing it under shade cloth or in an area that gets only morning sun?

An absolute must in charro beans and pico de gallo.
I need to buy some and dry or freeze it for cooking.
It runs about 35 cents a bunch all the time here.

A friend commented that the store bought bunches of cilantro just don't have the flavour of homegrown. Ditto! I thought it was just me.

I have never brought cuttings of Vietnamese Coriander indoors. Don’t know if spider mites would be an issue here! Might try rooting some on my porch here and keep them isolated from everything else till I’m sure they are clean. Is there something organic I could spray them with if they do appear?
Also never used the roots of regular cilantro. Do you cook them or use them raw!

I finely chop the cleaned roots and add them to Thai style soups. They also freeze very well.

I love cilantro too. Never heard of using the roots, will definitely try it.
Sometimes my timing hasn't been right to get mature seeds in the fall. I have harvested green seeds with a bit of leaf and dried them. Those immature seeds IMO are an underappreciated spice, with flavor midway between the leaf and the dry seeds. A great addition to samosa filling when you don't have fresh leaf.
Sadly I have no cilantro now... After mowing down every last carrot seedling in the bed, Black Arion went after the cilantro. And even though they had true leaves already, devoured the lot.

We use a lot of cilantro but have trouble keeping it going as it bolts easily in our heat, even in a sunny window. I look forward to growing more in the winter.

I wasn't aware that people use coriander root until I saw Marion's Kitchen on YouTube using it (IIRC she bruised it with a mortar and pestle). I am not sure whether our cilantro grows a substantial enough root to use like that. It might be a different variety?

Would love to seek out the Vietnamese variety especially if it likes warmer weather. There's a significant Vietnamese community here in Orlando, Florida, so I'll have to see if I can find it.

Ann

Growing Coastal wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:16 am A friend commented that the store bought bunches of cilantro just don't have the flavour of homegrown. Ditto! I thought it was just me.

Our homegrown coriander has an intense aroma, with an almost orange oil scent to it. The supermarket stuff doesn't come close to matching it. I find it's the same with basil and parsley.

I put in some coriander seed out in the garden a couple of days ago. Pretty indispensable, fresh cilantro, for a lot of cooking we do. Fresh cilantro is inexpensive here, but still it’s nice to get it whenever you like without any store being in the deal.

I agree home grown herbs tend to be supercharged on flavor.

Cilantro tastes like soap to me.
But I had my mouth washed out with soap for cussing so often when I was a wee thing I acquired a taste for soap.
So I love cilantro.

I'm another one that finds the home-grown herbs much more flavorful. I even reduce the number kaffir lime leaves called for slightly, as the flavor will be overwhelming using just picked leaves.

Vietnamese Coriander cuttings Seem to sprout roots very easily. A couple of weeks ago I opened my compost bin and found stems of stripped Vietnamese Sending out roots and new leaves. I rescued 5 of them and planted them in pots. They are doing well. I then picked some fresh stems and put them in a glass of water. Within days they were sprouting roots so have planted them in pots. They were outside in my table tent but now have been inside for a few days. I am watching for any insects that might be on them but they were washed when picked. Hope they make it through the winter to
be planted out next year.

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:07 pm I'm another one that finds the home-grown herbs much more flavorful. I even reduce the number kaffir lime leaves called for slightly, as the flavor will be overwhelming using just picked leaves.

I can buy them fresh frozen and they too are way more powerful than the dried.