The Secret to Growing Cilantro in the Sizzling Hot Socal Summer

I wish I knew it.  Every time I plant cilantro it bolts.   Bolting means that a plant sends up a tall flower stalk in a very short period of time. This means that the plant has gone to seed and will decline in terms of flavor.

This bok choi seedling bolted when still in it's little pot!

Most plants bolt due to hot weather. When the ground temperature goes above a certain temperature, this flips a switch in the plant to produce flowers and seeds very rapidly and to abandon leaf growth almost completely.

This is the flower from the arugula that bolted a few weeks ago.

The arugula....

Bolting is a survival mechanism in a plant. If the weather get to be above where the plant will survive, it will try to produce the next generation (seeds) as quickly as possible.

Some plants that are known for bolting are broccoli, cilantro, basil, cabbage and lettuce.

Once a plant has fully bolted, the plant is normally inedible. The plant’s entire energy reserve is focused on producing the seeds, so the rest of the plant tends to become tough and woody as well as tasteless or bitter.

Anyway back to the cilantro story.  I had five seedling I needed to get into the ground yesterday so I looked for cooler, partially shaded spots to put them.  Two little cilantro  seedlings I planted along the driveway (two photos below).  The other three I put in the front yard, partially shaded by the trees.

You can't really see the cilantro is this pix because it is tiny but it is just in front of the water heater, which should give it some shade.  The little bush you can see in front of the water heater is bay. You can see the cilantro in the photo below.

I will see if I can stop these from bolting right away.  Since I was planning this blog entry I looked around the internet and here are some suggestions I found to delay your cilantro from bolting:

• Keep the ground cool by covering with mulch.
• Plant cilantro close together - the leaves will keep the sun off the ground (this is one I didn't think of before!).
• Plant cilantro where it will get only early morning or late afternoon sun - not midday sun.

And then of course the other suggestion is just not to plant cilantro when it is too hot - plant either in the spring or the fall.  This makes sense to me because spring is when my avocado are ready :-)