I keep killing the recao!
January 6, 2010 11:35 AM   Subscribe

I keep killing the recao! Help me grow better!

I have been trying on and off for a couple of years to grow my own recao (cilantro/culantro) in my screen porch, but I keep killing it. Why?
The facts:
I live in the Southern US in the Gulf region (zone 8b/9a-ish). It's just a little too cold in the winter to grow tender stuff outside, hence the year-round porch gardening.
My porch has a long west-facing side that's shaded by a couple of young-middle-age live oaks and a short south-facing side that has two uncovered glass sheets (old sliding doors-cum-windows) and an opaque outside door. The whole west side has 3x4 windows that are open during three seasons and closed once the night temps hit 40.
I have a wild assortment of temperate, subtropical and tropical climate plants, including trees, ferns, citrus, orchids and succulents that are all, seriously, doing fine.
Inexplicably, the recao of the moment always looks healthy for a few weeks. When I'm cooking, I never pinch off more than one or two leaves (with several remaining), but then it just declines and dies.
The recao sits on a table, about three feet from the aforementioned west-facing, partially shaded window, and at least ten feet from the south-facing, all day sun side. It never gets full sun.
it gets watered when the soil starts to dry. I never let the soil get completely dry, but I never re-water while it's wet either.
nobody in the porch has any visible diseases or bugs, and there are usually a bunch of lizards and frogs in here to eat whatever does get in.
any ideas?
posted by toodleydoodley to Home & Garden (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: Culantro and cilantro aren't that closely related (they're in the same family but not the same genus), and they have quite different growing and harvesting needs.

Culantro needs to be harvested like lettuce--you pick the outer leaves and let the inner leaves grow. If you pick the inner leaves, the plant will die.

The only other thing I can think of is drainage; culantro needs really good drainage or it will develop root rot.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:53 AM on January 6, 2010


Best answer: Cilantro is a short lived annual - especially in climates like yours where it will quickly bolt in the heat. I live in zone 5/6, and even with our generally mild summers we still plant several successions for continuous harvest.
It's also pretty easy to start from seed....so I would check out some seed suppliers (Johnny's, High Mowing, Fedco) and try to find a slow bolting or heat resistant variety. Broadcast some of those seeds in a pot and see what happens.

It does like full-sun, so that could be another issue. I've never personally grown it in partial shade, but it may be possible. You always grow your cilantro in pots, right? Could you try moving the pot around the porch til you find a spot with better sun exposure?

Really it sounds like you're doing fine, though. Cilantro is just not something you can keep alive very long - especially in the heat.
posted by pilibeen at 12:03 PM on January 6, 2010


Best answer: According to a report from the Horticulture Dept. at Purdue,
  • Culantro is a biennial herb indigenous to continental Tropical America and the West Indies. Although widely used in dishes throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Far East, culantro is relatively unknown in the United States and many other parts of the world and is often mistaken and misnamed for its close relative cilantro or coriander . Some of its common names descriptive of the plant include: spiny or serrated coriander, shado beni and bhandhania (Trinidad and Tobago), chadron benee (Dominica), coulante (Haiti), recao (Puerto Rico), and fit weed (Guyana).
  • The appearance of culantro and cilantro are different but the leaf aromas are similar, although culantro is more pungent. Because of this aroma similarity the leaves are used interchangeably in many food preparations and is the major reason for the misnaming of one herb for the other. While relatively new to American cuisine, culantro has long been used in the Far East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In Asia, culantro is most popular in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore where it is commonly used with or in lieu of cilantro and topped over soups, noodle dishes, and curries. In Latin America, culantro is mostly associated with the cooking style of Puerto Rico, where recipes common to all Latin countries are enhanced with culantro.
  • Although the plant grows well in full sun, most commercial plantings occur in partially shaded moist locations. Shaded areas produce plants with larger and greener leaves that are more marketable because of their better appearance and higher pungent aroma. Culantro is relatively pest- and disease-free.
Sounds like you're growing it under the right conditions, so I have no idea why your plants are dying. But thanks for introducing a new word and a new seasoning to the new year!
posted by exphysicist345 at 1:06 PM on January 6, 2010


Sorry about that...I saw cilantro up there and just went with it. I'll definitely look into culantro though now - thanks!
posted by pilibeen at 2:10 PM on January 6, 2010


Response by poster: thanks all for your help - looks like light, drainage and grooming (which leaves to remove) are all issues I can address.

and pilibeen - by "bolt" do you mean "go berserker and grow everywhere and crowd out every other damn thing that lives?"

because that would be fine by me.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:32 PM on January 6, 2010


Hey toodleydoo - by "bolt" I meant flower and go to seed. I'm not sure this is an issue with cUlantro though, as I've never grown it. Sorry I can't be of more help...
posted by pilibeen at 9:02 PM on January 6, 2010


Response by poster: oh, right! well - if it reseeds when it flowers, I'm great with that, although I think I read that when the flower stalk comes up you have to cut it or the leaves will stop growing?
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:26 AM on January 9, 2010


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