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.
Mature height: 1-2 ft
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant cilantro, by zone
Every zone cilantro grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Not usually | May 20–May 27 | Jul 9–Jul 16 |
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 30–Jun 6 | Jul 19–Jul 26 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | May 15–May 22 | Jul 4–Jul 11 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | May 10–May 17 | Jun 29–Jul 6 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 25–May 2 | Jun 14–Jun 21 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Apr 10–Apr 17 | May 30–Jun 6 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 25–Apr 1 | May 14–May 21 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Feb 15–Feb 22 | Apr 6–Apr 13 |
| 10a & 10bFall window | Not usually | Oct–Jan | ~50 days after direct-sowing |
Harvest dates are about 50 days after the sow or plant-out date.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
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.
Good companions for cilantro
- Spinach: Both are cool-season, non-competing companions.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from cilantro →
Varieties worth considering
- Slow Bolt: Recommended for Santa Clara County by the UC Master Gardeners, based on their trials, taste tests and feedback from local growers. Cilantro bolts quickly once the weather turns hot, and they advise a slow-bolting variety like this one when you're growing it for the leaves rather than for coriander seed. (source) Buy seeds: True Leaf Market
- 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) Buy seeds: Burpee
- 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) Buy seeds: Botanical Interests · High Mowing Organic Seeds
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy cilantro seeds
Botanical Interests · True Leaf Market · Burpee · High Mowing Organic Seeds (each supplier's cilantro seeds)
The varieties we recommend above each have their own buy links, for the suppliers that sell that exact variety.
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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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