Help: Cilantro is not growing... How to grow Cilantro?

Gosh, I have no advice. We also have a horrible time. We have bought the grocery store type, garden centre types and have even tried seeds. We just seem to only ever get weedy stalks. So usually what we do is buy a bunch, use the fresh leaves and then remove the remaining leaves and freeze them in water in ice cube trays to use for marinade (usually for fajitas).

Side note for a laugh...

What I do is buy a bag of whole seeds form the Indian spices section. I have a 18" square shallow pan half filled with dirt with holes to drain, outside. I make 4 shallow trenches in the pan and fill generously with seed and cover over. The seeds are slow to germinate and if I sow May 24 then they are not ready to pull for 6-8 weeks. I pull the plants out roots and all and reseed as I go in the summer. They tend to bolt over July-August and they are not really usable for leaves then, as the leaves go all frondy, so I pull what's bolted. Plants will last into October-November if you keep resowing.

Ideally you would have 2 pans, sow one May 24, sow the other June 24 and reseed each as they bolt somehow you will have plants that aren't bolting over the summer. You could also move the pans to a shadier area to try to slow the bolting.

Bolting = going leggy, leaves turn to fronds, flowers set. If you want seed for the next year just let the plants bolt and clip off the flower stalks when they are dry in the fall and put them in a paper bag to dry. Beat the bag to loosen the seed from the stalk and save the seed.

For the store bought ones. Rehydrate them in a glass of water. Then plant them. I've had success doing that.

dazz wrote: ↑ So, it's been 2 years of trying to buy Cilantro in bunches, with roots from grocery stores, then cutting half of the bunch and planting the lower part into my little garden. Out of 20 bunches, there's usually 1 that survives. Which is weird. Cilantro doesn't even need roots to grow. It's one of not many plants that can create roots. Is there any trick? We also tried to grow cilantro in a pot by the window. Same thing, out of about 8, only 1 grew,but was tiny and weak and didn't grow much.

I accidentally grew cilantro in my herb garden (well, the GF did, anyways); they looked perfect, too bad cilantro is gross. We grew them similar to growing a rosemary branch; sit in water until something starts happening. Planted outs into a raised box with "dirt" made of peat moss, manure, random dirt, some sand. I watered them with a mister, and were covered overhead in shade cloth (otherwise they'd have been in full sun all day; I actually now don't think that'd have been a bad thing, but whatever). I wish I had pics, but my phone decided to eat a lot of my pics last winter, plus they were pretty brutal pics anyways.

Thank you all. We tried rehydrating them, tried normal soil, expensive soil, I tried even a few chemicals sprays... Nothing. Green onions, we have lot. These are the easiest to grow and we even collect some(little bit) green onions in the winter...lol
Dill is also sort of ok. For every 10 bunches I plant, I get about about 3-4 that grow.

We haven't tried seeds yet. It's already August and at this point by the time seeds will grow to acceptable height, it will be already cold.

dazz wrote: ↑ Thank you all. We tried rehydrating them, tried normal soil, expensive soil, I tried even a few chemicals sprays... Nothing. Green onions, we have lot. These are the easiest to grow and we even collect some(little bit) green onions in the winter...lol
Dill is also sort of ok. For every 10 bunches I plant, I get about about 3-4 that grow.

We haven't tried seeds yet. It's already August and at this point by the time seeds will grow to acceptable height, it will be already cold.

Actually you will probably have fresh cilantro for two months (Oct-Nov, in SW Ontario anyway) before the snow gets it. It's fairly frost hardy.

I grow it from seed. It's slow to get going and needs lots of sun, from what I can tell. It does bolt quickly in the heat so use it ASAP.