Cilantro plant struggling

[3hayleyjean]

I purchased a small Cilantro plant from my local farmers market, I transferred it from it's cardboard holder to a pot with potting soil. I've been watering it everyday, and it has been in full sunlight outside. The plan seems to have lost a lot of life and is withering a little, any tips for what I can do?

Here is a picture: [img]https://img683.imageshack.us/I/img0576td.jpg/[/img]

Thank you for all your help

[rainbowgardener]

I don't grow cilantro, but what I have read says it hates to be over-watered. Everyday sounds like a lot. Most plants like for the soil to dry out a bit between waterings. Don't water a little bit every day, water a lot (until water starts coming out the bottom) once a week.

Type cilantro in to the Search the Forum keyword box and find a lot written about them here. A lot of people say cilantro doesn't like full sun, especially in hot climates, but not everyone has the same experience. It seems to be just a fussy kind of plant.

[fmcmains]

I always associated cilantro (just because of its culinary usages) with warm weather climates. But, as a previous poster mention, it does not seem to like the heat. I tried to plant it for two separate years in the spring and in bolted right away. I just don't think it like the southern Summers. There is a plant called culantro [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum[/url] that has a similar flavor and is used in a lot of Caribbean cooking. I think it does fine through the summer but I have never tried to grow it.

[hendi_alex]

"I tried to plant it for two separate years in the spring and in bolted right away."

Bolting is not such a bad thing. I let the cilantro flower and make seeds, which after they turn gray/brown, I then scatter among several beds. I do this both in the spring and in the fall. Last year my scattered seeds germinated in the late summer and gave a small harvest of leaves. The plants also overwintered and are now growing like crazy. I do the same with parsley which usually overwinters well.

Any time that I plant cilantro or parsley in early to mid spring, it bolts very quickly with the heat. But if the plants are started late spring/early summer, they will produce leaves all summer and winter and will not bolt until the following year.

I have noticed this bolting tendency with our favorite salad green, arugula. So I always make several plantings between early spring and early summer. The last planting always produces through late summer and winter, and does not bolt until the following spring. Those overwintered plants are already flowering now. But as with the herbs, I'll select a couple of plants and let them make seeds for later succession plantings.

As far as overwintering, I find it interesting that our lows got down into the single digits this past season. So both plants can handle pretty low temperatures.

[fmcmains]

Huh, interesting observation. I'll have to put some in the ground in a month or so and see who things go... maybe even push it until the end of April. It would be nice to have fresh cilantro to cook with in the yard. Thanks for the insight.