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Why is My Cilantro Flowering?

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What is happening to my Cilantro plant? Is this supposed to happen to the plant? Why is my cilantro flowering? I need help! These and several more are some of the questions we receive a lot in our emails.

Growing cilantro for the first time can be frustrating, especially for seasoned garners. However, fret not because we are. I will give you a detailed guide to help you through this flowering dilemma. So, if you want the answer to the big question, “why is my cilantro flowering,” you should keep reading.

Why is My Cilantro Flowering
Cilantro Flowers – via Flickr

How to Tell If My Cilantro Is Flowering?

Ideally, you should be able to tell that your cilantro has begun to flower before asking why it is flowering. It’s pretty simple.

You can tell when your cilantro begins to flower when it produces a thick central stem. You would notice that some tiny flowers and delicate leaves are growing on the tip of these thick stems.

By this time, you would also notice that your cilantro plant has grown tall, and the leaves are turning yellow. Now, at this point, the leaves become bitter and, of course, inedible.

Then, the final stage is noticing that the buds transform into little pods of cilantro seeds. With these signs, you can now ask the big question, “why is my cilantro flowering?”. With these signs, you can also study your cilantro plant and find ways to help lengthen the life span of your plant.

Why Is My Cilantro Flowering?

Cilantro flowering is one of every beginner gardener’s struggles during planting seasons. First, you need to understand that flowering is a natural occurrence. It signifies the end of a plant’s life cycle regardless of whatever plant. But then, why is my cilantro flowering anyways?

Yes! This is absolutely true. Like humans love to remain at moon temperature, cilantro also loves room temperature. So, the moment cilantro feels a temperature change; it flowers immediately.

A tiny change in the temperature will cause cilantro to flower. Why is this happening? Well, flowering is a survival mechanism for the plant.

The plant is aware that it will die in hot weather conditions, so it produces seeds as quickly as possible. This ensures that the next generation of the cilantro plant is guaranteed.

It will flower faster than lightning when you expose the cilantro plant to heat or hot weather. Cilantro has a short life span and a cool-weather crop.

For a cilantro plant, flowering is a common thing that every gardener should be aware of and be prepared for. Because, once the plant lives its life, or there is a slight temperature change, it will flower and die.

Now that you understand why your cilantro plant is flowering, there are other related questions to handle. Now, how do you know when your cilantro is flowering before the flowers begin to appear?

Why is My Cilantro Flowering 2
Why is My Cilantro Flowering – via Reddit

Can I Still Eat My Cilantro After Flowering?

Are you wondering if you can eat your cilantro even after its flowers? Or what do you do with the plant after its flowers? Well, once your cilantro plant starts to flower, it loses all its flavor immediately.

The leaves become bitter, and there will be nothing left to enjoy from the leaves. Are you thinking of removing the white flowers? Well, cutting off the flowers to restore the flavors won’t work.

The leaves remain bitter regardless of whether the flowers remain or are cut off. Except, you want to go ahead to dip the nachos in some bitter guacamole, you should let nature take the wheel. Luckily for you, your cilantro produces fruits or seeds after flowering.

These seeds are common herbs as well and are called coriander seeds. These coriander seeds are fully packed with flavor and used to spice your next curry dish. So, all is not entirely lost when your cilantro flowers.

How Do I Keep My Cilantro Plant From Flowering Too Soon?

You need to understand that flowering is natural, and there is no accurate way to keep that from happening. All plants are required to produce one way or the other. It is the natural order of life. Keeping the cilantro plant from flowering is fighting nature.

However, there are just a few things you can do to lengthen the life span of your plant before it produces flowers. Studying the environment where you grow your cilantro can help prolong the life before it flowers. This will increase the time you can harvest flavored leaves from the plant.

First, your environment matters a lot. Remember, a slight change in the temperature will cause your cilantro plant to flower immediately.

So, if you live in an environment that doesn’t have cool or moist weather, then you can go for slow-flower cilantro. Professionals have bred this type of cilantro to withstand high temperatures than average.

Next, you need to practice succession planting, irrespective of the kind of cilantro you are growing. Succession planting is where you plant new seeds every two to three weeks. This will ensure that as one set of cilantro is flowering, another set is getting ready to be harvested.

Thirdly, I will recommend that you plant cilantro during the cold weather. Late summer, early fall, or early spring are best to plant and harvest flavored cilantro. You will have flowered cilantro if you decide to plant late, like mid-summer or late spring.

Fourthly, you should ensure that you harvest your cilantro leaves frequently. This is because the more you harvest these leaves, you are likely to nip immature flowering stalks. These immature stalks will delay cilantro flowering.

Finally, when planting this cilantro, you should mulch and plant them tightly. Mulching will keep the soil cool and also retain moisture.

Also, planting this cilantro tightly will shade the ground it grows, keeping the soil cooler. The fact is that it isn’t the heat of air but the heat of the soil that causes the cilantro to flower.


Conclusion

There you have it! The simple answer to the question “Why is my cilantro flowering? It’s simply because of heat. Flowering is natural, and nothing can prevent that.

Also, remember that your cilantro flowering is not the end of the world. The flowering will gift you with a whole supply of seeds to use for another spicy dish. Finally, feel free to drop your comments in the comment box.