Growing Coriander Organically

Coriander is one of those herbs that can divide a household!  Some people absolutely love its fresh, citrusy flavour, while others... well, let's just say it tastes rather different to them!

For those of us who love it, having fresh coriander growing in the garden is wonderful. It's a useful herb for curries, salads, soups, sauces, chutneys and all sorts of vegan dishes.

The good news is that you don't need a huge garden to grow it. Coriander is very happy growing in pots and containers, making it a great herb for small-space gardeners.

t is also a lovely plant to grow for its seeds. If you allow some plants to flower and set seed, you can collect the seeds to use in the kitchen or save them for another sowing.

The slight catch?Coriander can be a bit of a drama queen and bolt when it gets hot or dry! 

So rather than sowing one big batch and hoping for the best, I prefer to sow little amounts regularly. 

Where to Grow Coriander

Coriander likes a bright position, but in warmer weather it can benefit from some protection from the strongest midday sun.

A spot with morning sun and a little afternoon shade can work well.

It grows particularly well in:

🪴 Pots

🌿 Containers

🌱 Raised beds

🥕 Vegetable beds

🏡 Greenhouses or sheltered growing spaces

If you're short on space, don't worry — a pot of coriander on a sunny patio or near the kitchen is absolutely worthwhile, and all my herbs are outside my door.

And having it close to the kitchen means you can simply pop outside and snip what you need.

Growing Coriander From Seed:

I prefer to sow coriander directly where I want it to grow because it doesn't particularly enjoy having its roots disturbed. Choose a container or a prepared patch of soil and sow your seeds fairly thinly.

 Cover them lightly with compost and keep the soil moist while they germinate.

 Don't sow everything you have in one go! Succession sowing is your friend.

 Sow a small amount every 2–3 weeks during the growing season. That way, as one batch begins to mature or eventually bolts, you've got another batch coming along behind it.

It gives you a much better chance of having fresh coriander leaves available for longer.

 Watering Coriander

Coriander likes to be kept evenly watered, particularly while young and when growing in containers.

Try not to let the compost completely dry out and then flood it. A little and often is generally much kinder to your plants.

 This is particularly important during warm, dry weather because stress can encourage coriander to bolt. 

Harvesting Coriander

You can start harvesting the leaves once the plants are well established. Simply snip off what you need, rather than stripping the entire plant. I love herbs that can go straight from the garden into the kitchen.A handful of fresh coriander can completely change a meal. Couldn't be easier.

 When Coriander Flowers:

Eventually, your coriander may decide it has had enough of producing lovely leafy goodness and wants to make flowers and seeds instead.

 And that's okay! Don't automatically pull it out.

 The little flowers are useful to pollinators and other beneficial insects, so allowing some plants to flower can be a lovely addition to an organic garden.  Once the flowers have finished, you'll get coriander seeds. And suddenly your herb has given you two crops!

Growing Coriander for Seeds:

If you want to collect coriander seeds, allow the flowers to develop and the seeds to mature on the plant.

 As the seed heads dry and change colour, you can collect them and allow them to dry thoroughly before storing.

Store your dried coriander seeds somewhere cool, dry and dark in a suitable airtight container.

And remember — those seeds aren't just for next year's garden!They're also a wonderful kitchen spice. 

 Growing Coriander in Containers.

 Coriander is particularly useful for container gardeners.

 Choose a container with good drainage and fill it with good-quality organic compost. Because coriander doesn't have an enormous root system, you don't need a gigantic pot.

You can even have several small pots and sow them at different times.

 This is one of my favourite tricks for herbs: Don't put all your herbs in one pot. Give yourself several pots and stagger your sowing.

Then when one pot starts to bolt, another is ready to harvest.

 Let Some Flower

One of the lovely things about growing herbs organically is that we don't always have to remove every flower. Coriander flowers can provide food for beneficial insects and pollinators.So if you have enough plants, why not let some flower?

You get:

Leaves → Flowers → Seeds

That's a pretty good return from one little packet of seeds!

 Common Coriander Problem — Bolting

If there's one thing coriander is famous for, it's bolting. Bolting simply means the plant moves from producing lots of leafy growth into flowering and producing seeds.

It can happen more quickly when plants are:

☀️ Too hot

💧 Water-stressed

🌱 Mature

Rather than seeing bolting as a complete disaster, I try to work with it. My approach?  Keep sowing!

If you regularly sow small batches, you can have young plants coming along while older plants are flowering.

And let some of those flowers do their thing.

Your garden gets flowers, the insects get food and you eventually get coriander seeds.

Everybody wins. 

From the Yarden to the Kitchen

Of course, the best thing about growing coriander is eating it! 

Fresh coriander is brilliant in:

🍛 Vegan curries

🥗 Salads

🌮 Tacos

🥣 Soups

🌿 Chutneys

🥑 Guacamole

🍚 Rice dishes

🥙 Wraps

🥕 Vegetable dishes

And because you're growing it yourself, you can simply harvest exactly what you need.

No sad little plastic packet of coriander slowly turning into slime at the back of the fridge. We've all been there.