When to harvest Cilantro seeds?

Gary350 · Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:27 pm

I am letting my Cilantro go to seed. I bought a Cilantro plant it is grew fine. I bought 3 packs of seeds they did not grow so I hope to get some good seeds from my plant. I am not sure what to expect, hope one day I don't find all the seed have faller off the plant to the ground. Right now the plant is covered with little green balls that look like they will be seeds soon. Maybe I should cover the plant with a mesh cloth bag to capture the seeds if the fall off. Maybe screen wire under the plant would work.

Any suggestions?

!potatoes! · Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:57 pm

think you want them to dry as fully as possible on the plant, bagging might help, but they usually hang on pretty well.

by the way, when they're seeds, they're coriander.

Gary350 · Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:13 am

My Cilantro plant died and dried up. About 95% of the seeds stayed on the plant. I pulled the plant up and layed it in a garbage can lid. Shaking the plant only a little bit and about 40% of the seeds fell off. I rubbed my hands over the plant and another 20% of the seeds fell off. The rest of the seeds were harder to remove. All the seeds are now in a white mailing invelope marked, Cilantro Seeds 2009. One plant made a lot of seeds, there is no way to do an accurate count but there has to be over a 1000 seeds.

hendi_alex · Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:22 am

Same experience here Gary. And I've read that cilantro seeds don't store well and don't often give good germination. The results have certainly been mixed with store bought seeds. I'll let my seeds dry another week or so, and then into the freezer they will go with my other saved seeds.

Gary350 · Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:24 am

In college I learned that some seeds require a certain number of days below freezing in the winter to germinate in the springs. If the seeds do not get their requirement of cold winter days they will not germinate. I have no idea how to know which seeds have this requirement and what type of winter weather is required for each seed.

hendi_alex · Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:40 am

Stored in the freezer, they are sure to get enough freezing days. I don't know that storing in the freezer has any benefit over any other method of storage, but do know that many of my seeds last for five years and longer when stored in the freezer. Some like corn, sweet peas, cilantro don't store so well.