Growing Cilantro: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · July 18, 2026
Cilantro is a short-lived crop in most climates: it wants cool weather, grows fast, and bolts to flower the moment heat sets in, converting its leaves’ flavor from bright and citrusy to soapy and thin almost overnight.
Sowing it directly, and sowing it often
Direct-sow seed about 1/4 inch deep around 2 weeks before your last frost. Cilantro doesn’t transplant well, so skip starting it indoors. At 9 plants per square foot, it’s dense and quick, reaching harvestable size in around 50 days. Because it bolts fast once heat arrives, successive small plantings every couple of weeks produce a steadier supply than one large planting all at once.
The bolt that ends the harvest
Plants that shoot up a tall central stalk and stop producing new leaves have bolted. This is a heat response, not a disease, and once it starts the leaf flavor declines fast. If you want the seed (coriander), let a planting bolt on purpose rather than fighting it. Thin, leggy growth usually means the plants are too crowded or not getting enough direct light.
A quick-turnover filler between longer crops
Cilantro pairs well with other cool-season, non-competing crops like spinach. See the full companion guide for cilantro. Its dense 9-per-square-foot spacing and short season make it a good crop to tuck into the Garden Designer as a quick-turnover filler between slower, longer-season plants.
Companion planting guide for Cilantro · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. Cilantro doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Cilantro plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1-2 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Slow Bolt: True Leaf Market markets Slow Bolt specifically for its delayed bolting in heat, giving a longer harvest window of leaves before the plant switches over to flowering and seed (coriander) production, worth choosing over a standard variety if your springs warm up quickly. (source)
- Calypso: Johnny's own trials found Calypso three weeks slower to bolt than their Santo variety, the slowest-bolting cilantro they sell, on bulky plants that yield abundant leaves in 5-6 weeks. The variety to reach for specifically because you've been burned by a fast spring before. (source)
- Santo: The standard slow-bolt cilantro most seed racks carry, and Calypso's own baseline comparison. A reasonable default if Calypso or Slow Bolt aren't available and you just need something better than an unlabeled bulk packet. (source)
Cited from the source shown next to each variety. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.
Where to buy cilantro seeds
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews. See the sources cited on each item.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing cilantro" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Cilantro: A fast, cool-season herb that bolts the moment summer heat arrives. Plan around that instead of fighting it.
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