Why Cilantro Bolts and Why It’s a Good Thing!

Cilantro is one of our family’s favorite herbs to grow. We use it in cooking various dishes and always include it in our guacamole. In the garden it tends to be very short lived in the heat of the summer. Cilantro is very heat sensitive and will produce flowers very fast when the temperatures get warm.

Why does Cilantro bolt?

When a plant begins to flower is called bolting. Bolting is often caused by stress or heat in cool season plants like cilantro. The stress causes the plant to produce seeds so that it can propagate itself for the future.

Don’t let a bolting cilantro plant disturb you though, there are lots of great reasons to let your cilantro bolt!

Why Cilantro Bolting is a Good Thing for your Garden!

Cilantro produces small tiny clusters of white to pink flowers that are very ornamental. While that might be a great reason in itself to let cilantro flower cilantro also attracts numerous small bees and pollinators to the garden. Those small bees are great pollinators for other plants you may have in your garden. If you are having trouble with pollination in your vegetable garden try planting cilantro to encourage more pollinators to visit.

Do Pests Bother Cilantro?

Cilantro is also never bothered by deer or rabbits so it makes a great plant to keep next to garden areas that may have issues with those creatures. I’ve found that the scent of cilantro helps to dissuade garden raiders from nibbling nearby plants. I’ve never noticed caterpillars or other leaf munching insects attacking cilantro.

After flowering (bolting) cilantro will produce lots of seeds which then becomes the spice coriander. The seed is very easy to collect either by hand or by pulling up the plant to thrash into a box or paper bag. Once the seed is formed the plant fades away and is done but not before producing hundreds of seeds for your use either as a spice or as a way to make more cilantro.

Can you Slow Bolting in Cilantro?

You can, a little. To keep cilantro from bolting you can grow it in a location with more shade or plant it in pots and move it to a shady spot when the weather gets warm. The cooler temperatures in the shade will slow bolting but will not completely stop it.

Try Succession Planting to Keep Cilantro Growing

I like to collect and save the cilantro seeds to plant outdoors every couple of weeks in the garden to sustain the harvest over the warm season. This is a technique called succession planting. The cilantro seeds will germinate and begin the cycle all over again!

You will probably find that if you let your cilantro seeds bolt that it will self-sow in your garden.

Remember you can save the seeds, separate the chaff, and use the cilantro seeds (coriander) in a grinder to season your foods.

Where to Find Cilantro Seeds

Get your cilantro started with quality seed from Botanical Interest Seed Co. (aff.).