cilantro

There is little point to it beyond satisfaction of having green things sprout up temporarily because cilantro is so inexpensive by the bunch, but as it turns out I did want some green things sprouting up temporarily to grow into a potted arrangement. The whole thing took off better and faster than I imagined, due, I think, to the power of inexpensive 40W Chinese fluorescent twisted tubes. Large, unsightly, and bright.

My first attempt at growing cilantro did not germinate so easily. That was from packaged seeds. I discovered whole seeds from the spice cabinet worked as well as seeds bought from seed companies.

I wondered, why do two separate plants always grow out of the same spot?  Was I carelessly dropping two seeds in each hole?

Each tiny seed ball is two seed hemispheres. They call them germs. Broken in half they become monogerms and they germinate more reliably broken apart this way, that is monogerms planted together germinate as a crop together rather than it taking various lengths of time for water to work its way into individual doublegerms,  to get through the outer shell and moisten the two inner germs.  Bound together they tend to germinate irregularly, sometimes skipping a season, but when they do, two plants come out. It takes time for moisture to work through the undamaged shell.

I'm thinking of the plants as an arrangement. One that grows. Chiles are growing, and so are tomatoes, twice this height behind what is pictured. New cilantro is coming up beneath this. The random transplants and seed sprinklings went fast, and all from seeds right there in the kitchen. Tomatoes are particularly surprising. The tomatoes marketed as vine tomatoes -- aren't they all? -- still on the vine, are fastest of all three types planted, and all three types are surprisingly fast.

Cilantro is a cool weather plant. Its signal to bolt is when the soil becomes greater than 75℉.  That is rather cool for summer. Not a summer plant. Successive plantings recommended.