Cilantraumbrella( celery).Its seeds and young greens are eaten as a spicy seasoning, and also used in the pharmaceutical and perfume industries. Homeland cilantro is located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Even 5,000 years ago, this grass was mentioned in its manuscripts by the ancient Egyptians, somewhat later the Jews - in the Old Testament. Since then, cilantro has spread over almost the entire world and in some places has begun to grow even as a weed. Today cilantro is one of the most common spices in the world. Young greens are used in dishes mainly fresh. Cilantro seeds are used in the form of fragrant powder. 
Although the official name of cilantro Coriandrum sativum, in Russia it is common to call coriander dried seeds of this plant, and cilantro is its green part.
In addition to its gastronomic advantages, cilantro has pronounced healing properties. Eating it normalizes the work of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys, helps cleanse the body of toxins, destroy parasites, strengthen the cardiovascular and nervous systems of the body, treat wounds and skin diseases. Cilantro is contraindicated only for thrombophlebitis, post-infarction and post-stroke syndromes, during pregnancy and lactation.
Knowing the beneficial properties of this wonderful plant, we immediately ask ourselves: how to grow cilantro? The plant is quite simple in sowing and care. It can be grown all year round: in the summer in the garden, and in the winter - in a pot on the windowsill.
Cilantro: planting and care
Cilantro is a cold-resistant plant. It is able to withstand frosts down to -5˚С. Therefore, it is possible to start planting in early spring, when the soil thaws. Sowing in the greenhouse will allow for an even earlier harvest. You can spend and podzimnye crops, so that with the first spring days to have on the table fresh vitamin greens.
A place to plant coriander should be sunny all day. This plant does not like shade. When shading, cilantro bushes grow weak, slightly leafy, quickly gaining flower stalks. Fruits become shallow and their ripening is delayed.
Sowing is done with dry seeds, laying out 2-3 seeds at a distance of 8 - 10 cm in the longitudinal grooves in the garden. If the seeds are sown more often, the plants will loosely gain green mass and quickly go into flowering. The grooves should be located at a distance of 10 - 15 cm from each other in order to provide the plants with maximum illumination. The seeds of coriander are quite large, so they are buried to a depth of 1-2 cm. After sowing, the bed must be watered abundantly.
Coriander seeds lose their germination relatively quickly. Therefore, for sowing seeds should be taken no older than two years, although as a spice they can be stored much longer.
Shoots appear, depending on the variety, shelf life of seeds and weather conditions, within 5 to 20 days. After planting cilantro care is easy:
- Thinning. In order for plants not to compete for a place in the sun and a food zone on the ground, of the several plants that have ascended in one nest, only one, the strongest one should be left.
- Weeding. Cilantro does not tolerate thickening. Otherwise, instead of rich green shoots in the garden, umbrellas of flower stalks will quickly stretch.
- Regular watering .After sowing and before the appearance of the first shoots, the bed should be watered abundantly, so that the embryos of cilantro do not have a lack of nutrition and moisture. When the first green bores appear above the ground, watering should be reduced. While the sprouts will gain strength, it is enough just to keep the bed in a moist state. With the beginning of the active set of green mass, it is necessary to begin watering more and more often, so that young plants do not go into color before time. But at the stage of ripening fruit watering should be reduced to a minimum.
- Loosening the row spacing .On dense poor soils cilantro gives little greenery and quickly gathers inflorescences.
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Coriander soil should be slightly alkaline or neutral, loose, nourishing, well-conductive. These can be loams and sandals, which should be filled with organic matter and mineral complex fertilizers.
Cilantro is not fed during active growth! All nutrients under it should be made in advance. In the fall, potash and phosphate fertilizers and compost are added to the soil. In the spring before sowing make nitrogen fertilizer.
Green mass from plants is cut off as it grows. Collect greens should be before the release of flower baskets. After the peduncles start to grow, the green mass of the plants becomes coarse and depleted. Observing the rules of agricultural engineering, greens from each plant can be collected up to three times per season.
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Cilantro on the windowsill
Favorite coriander can please with its bright taste all year round. Growing cilantro at home is a snap. To do this, you will need:
- The sunniest place in the apartment is on the balcony, on the windowsill. The more sun you can provide to this curly southerner, the more generous he will thank you with lush greens. It is best to grow the cilantro on the windowsill on the south side.
- Seating capacity. They should be selected depending on the amount of green you are going to get. For a small bunch of green cilantro, you can use an ordinary flower pot with large holes in the bottom. It is desirable that the pot was ceramic, without glaze - the breathability of such pots is much better than that of plastic. If you plan to grow more spicy greens, it is better to use seedling containers. It is better if it is a wooden box - for the same reasons air permeability. Coriander can also be quite successfully grown in plastic containers, but this will require more thorough loosening of the soil. At the bottom of the tanks should be laid drainage to drain excess moisture.
- Soil for planting seeds. The soil should be loose, nutritious and moisture permeable. You can use garden soil, sifting it from earthworms. You can use ready-made universal soil purchased in the store. A small amount of nitrogenous fertilizer, for example, urea, can be added as a top dressing before sowing.
- Fresh seeds. The fresher the seeds, the stronger and more friendly shoots they will give.
Up to 5 plants( 5 nests) can be planted in one pot. Too thicken the crops should not, so as not to cause stretching of seedlings. If you use a seedling box, cilantro should be sown with lines, leaving 4-5 cm between plants and 10 cm between the lines. Seeds are buried 2-3 pieces in separate holes to a depth of 1-2 cm.
The cilantro plant has a straight taproot with poorly developed adventitious roots. Any, even minor damage to the main root leads to the death of the plant. Therefore, cilantro can not be transplanted, but must be sown immediately to a permanent place.
After sowing the seeds, it is recommended to cover the pot with glass or plastic film on top and put a plastic bag over the pot. Such a procedure for growing cilantro at home will help to maintain a constant level of humidity and temperature, so necessary for germinating seeds. When the seeds come up, the greenhouse must be removed.
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In stage 1-2 of these leaves, plants need to be thinned, removing weak and leaving the strongest and strongest in each nest. Water the shoots should be regularly, but little by little, so that the earthen ball in the pot was moderately wet. Excess water from the pan must be drained. In winter, if the plants are drawn out, additional lighting is needed.
You can thickly sow cilantro in a small container in order to grow it in a bundle for single use. But in order for such a bundle to turn out to be big and juicy, additional illumination will definitely be needed. It is possible to collect the first green of cilantro from a window sill in a month. In contrast to the collection of garden, cilantro, grown at home, should not be cut at the root. From it you just need to tear off the leaves and use them as food. When the peduncles appear, they should be immediately pinned so that the plant continues to grow greens.
Storing cilantro
Since we use not only fresh greens, but also dry seeds, we should say a few words about storing cilantro. Green cilantro on drying loses almost all its flavor. Therefore, to prepare it for future use in this way does not make sense. But coriander seeds, on the contrary, retain their bright aroma perfectly for many years, if they are provided with appropriate storage conditions.
For storage, seeds are thoroughly dried. The complete absence of moisture - the main key to long-term storage of cilantro. Dried seeds are placed in a tight container and hermetically sealed. For this fit plastic bags in 2-3 layers, glass or plastic jars with lids. In this form, coriander seeds can be stored for a very long time, without losing their taste and healing qualities. Skilled housewives will always find the use of this amazing plant and its fragrant fruits.
Powder the coriander seeds into powder immediately prior to their use, and add to dishes before the very end of the heat treatment. This allows spices to most clearly reveal their flavor. With prolonged heat treatment, coriander seeds completely lose their flavor. The same thing happens if you keep the spice in pounded form, and not whole seeds.
The use of cilantro in the daily diet significantly enriches its taste and helps to avoid many diseases. Therefore, knowing how to plant cilantro, it is worth giving this amazing plant a little time and care, planting it at home.
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