Cilantro Succession Planting and Fall Gardens with Megan Cain |Bonus Episode
Click here for Megan Cain’s YouTube Channel – Tips for Growing Cilantro All Season Long
I think it’s something that’s on a lot of people’s minds this year because it’s summer
One thing that’s good to know is cilantro doesn’t really like the summer!
It doesn’t like the heat! Even I live in the Northern climate but it still get’s hot in the summer. Plus the increasing daylight although it was just the solstice but now we actually have getting decreasing daylight.
But the increasing sunlight cause things to bolt and go to flower
After you get one or two harvests you’ll see it’s trying to push up a flower which means it’s bolting
It’s gonna try to set seed
often because it’s stressed which is often because of the heat
A common questions when I’m out and about and at classes
People ask me “How do I grow Cilantro?”
It likes conditions it likes are cool
not in the summer
better luck in spring and summer or fall
some people might be listening in winter
Try to plant it as early as possible
plant cilantro
a month before my average last frost
mid may OR plant in mid April
If conditions are ok you want to plant about a month before last frost it’s gonna be a lot happpier
If you have a cold frame or low tunnel, you can plant it even a month before that mid March. I have been experimenting with that!
But even if you plant it early, its gonna go to seed, it’s gonna bolt
So one tip is just keep PLANTING!
You don’t plant it once and think you are going to have it for the rest of the season. So keep planting. It’s one of the vegetables best for succession planting
I wrote myself last year, remind myself to plant cilantro every two weeks!
Just keep planting a row
- every week
- every two weeks
You’ll notice as it get’s close to summer it bolts pretty quickly
I harvest it
and try to cut it short, to prevent it from bolting. Some of the leaves grow back
This is my cilantro this year had already bolted back at the end of June.
What do you do after it bolts? Do you pull it out, let it go to seed?
After it bolts
I love the flowers! I think they’re really pretty
Beneficial insects like it.
I found ladybugs and other insects on there
- let it flower
- go to seed
- gets top heavy
We had rain over vacation, and it flopped over and covering them, so I yanked it out
in general I tell people that once a plant isn’t producing
get it out so you can get another crop in there
keep in mind for insects too
carrots or beets
wait a little space empty
planting fall garden
another tip is
if you can keep it cooler in the summer you might have better luck!
plant in garden that is shade
I went to visit these friends and they put it in a place that is shady which is not that great for veggies or salad greens in August I don’t have a lot of salad greens or cilantro
They had a full lush bed, because they had it in such a shady bed
So if you have a shady part in your garden, great place to plant that don’t like the hot weather
Shade Cloth
An experiment I am doing this year is I bought some shade cloth
- lightly woven
- black mesh
If you look online you can see there are different thicknesses that blocks out a certain amount of light I got one that blocks about 30% of the light because I need some light to grow vegetables
But in the late afternoon shade
- cilantro
- salad mix in there
- can I keep salad mix growing
- throughout the summer with some shade cloth
Often I take a break in the summer from eating lettuce because it also bolts
Three awesome tips for keeping cilantro grow through your summer. One thing I think about when it does bolt, a lot of other things are coming on and it gives you some time to eat them and maybe keep up a little. Zucchinis are probably starting to grow etc.
The other thing sometimes I go to farmer’s market to get it from someone else is doing better then me
I like to see what everybody’s growing and what other else is doing better then me
The biggest and my favorite tips
fall garden
growing it in fall is a completely different experience
I am a big proponent especially for people in cold climates
It’s such an amazing season!
A lot of people don’t because they run out of energy
less
Because it’s cooler
- days are shorter
- mosquitos disappear
- a lot of garden pests disappear
- not a lot of weed growth anymore
Cilantro will last for a long time! It’s frost hardy and it can go through the first frost and be fine
many more weeks in the fall
then I could in the spring in the summer
Depending on where you live, I plant it, my first frost is usually the first week in oct
much later, planting in August, several different successions, then Sept it gets cooler and into Oct
- row cover
- hoop house
- cold frame
I harvest it on Thanksgiving and into December!
I’m so glad you said that because one of the things I have finally come to terms with is planting my fall garden in July, into August. I always thing plant a fall garden, you would plant it in Sept, but it’s almost time to plant it now.
But do you have any tips for planting succession wise because I inevitably take the packet down there and plant them all at once I think I should separate them out on the kitchen table before I even go down to the garden. Do you have any tips for that?
I have a planting calendar that keeps you on track
I’m pretty good at getting things out of the garden
I cram every space with something, you always want to give things room to grow but I am always trying to fit things in
if I harvest something, say I pulled out a lot of spring spinach in the last month I ripped it all out and I immediately plant something else usually the same day.
succession planting
making sure you have enough seeds
- carrots
- spinach
- beets
I think a lot of it is planning and don’t really have that many seeds I get the next big one/small one doesn’t always have that many seeds in it.
For squash maybe it doesn’t matter
But carrots I know I’m gonna plant a lot of rows so I make sure that I get a lot of seed
- always have seed
- ready to plant
- space that opens up
- get yourself out there
- filling spaces whenever you have space
I am starting to think about fall garden
too late
northern climate
plant life really slows down
things are growing slower
These long days in the north
can almost sit there and watching plants grow
in fall things are slowing down
I live in 5A
I plant majority of my fall garden in August
If you want to plant carrots you have to plant in July
beets
take a little longer throughout August I’m planting a lot of greens and turnips
up until the beginning of Sept it’s too late things aren’t gonna grow
It’s so awesome to have a fall garden!
I have lots of posts on my website and I also developed an online class
That walks people through
- when you should plant things based on your zone
- what varieties I recommend for fall weather
- how to use row cover
- how to build a low tunnel
- how to use a cold frame
Summer garden season can be frustrating! I think, there’s a lot of pests! It can be hot!
A lot of people don’t necessarily like the hot! I htink it can be more fun to garden in the fall!
That’s my plug to start a fall garden!
Broccolis are another one that struggle in the heat. You’ve inspired me and taught me a lot. You’re so right, there’s that August slump! And it’s hot and you planted all this with lots of ambition and it’s dry and how am I gonna do all this.
It’s been cold and damp here. I was surprised after just getting back from NY, a lot of things I thought would be bigger, the corn is by my ankles. The cold has been really chilly this spring. I feel like I should go plant some cilantro right now.
I continue to plant
I love cilantro so much I use a lot of it!
I throw it in my pesto!
I have a couple of sauces I bake
I could never have too much cilantro and I just keep planting it!
Do you want to tell them about your youtube videos you have figured out how to put two videos together and how to get the text type! You’re really good at explaining things too!
I have a lot of videos, I have a membership site, a garden club where people pay either yearly or monthly.
We do a community learning challenge every month or so. People vote on what they want to learn and I figure out how to teach it, I make some videos
6 minutes or less is what I try to do. I had so many videos I should put some on Youtube and share them with everybody. Some people like to learn by reading a blog post but some people like to watch the action.
The videos happen in my garden doing it
One of my most popular is how to prune your tomato
all the parts
- show people how to prune
- fun way to teach
- see things in action
get a peak inside my garden
It’s fairly new every week I usually add a new video
weekly email
applicable blog post on that subject
If you’re not on my list you can sign up at my website Creative Vegetable Gardener
I usually send out an every Sunday morning
I’ve done surveys in the past to see what do people want to learn about? Then I make a video about it. It was fun! I was editing a non gardening video we were up on lake superior last week, we recently bought a tiny travel trailer. IDK if anyone’s heard of a scamp?
fiberglass
I posted some pictures on social media, and a bunch of people said we want to see inside! So I
- story
- trailer
- fun video
send it out to my list on Monday
- fun ones periodically
- watch a fun video!
THIS IS IT! IT’s summer! I think I want to remind people to really take time to appreciate! I like to take a lot of photos!
don’t forget to put your to do list down and just get out there and have your morning cup of coffee, or drink at night or eat your dinner in your garden and sit and look around at all your hard work…
We’re at the height of summer! This is it!
For sure, I love to be in the garden and take pictures and one of these days I’m gonna get down there and paint!
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