Gardening: Tips for planting garlic and coriander
Q. Where can I buy the seeds or whatever to start garlic plants? I have looked at places where you can buy spice seeds and there is none listed. What is the proper technique to growing it?
— H. K. of Millstadt
A. Garlic can be found in garden centers and farm stores, but it will not be found in the section that sells seeds. Look for garlic where the onion sets are sold. The flowers of garlic are sterile and do not produce seeds. New plants are grown from individual sections of the bulbs, commonly called cloves, which is what you usually use in cooking. Do not use the cloves found in the grocery store. They probably have probably been stored above 77 degrees, which inhibits the formation of cloves. For growing, cloves should be stored at about 40 degrees for several months. Most gardeners growing garlic plant the cloves in the fall, since the soil is too wet for planting in the spring. In preparing the garlic bed, apply 1/2 pound of 12-12-12 fertilizer per 100 square feet and work it into the top 4 inches of soil.
Separate the cloves of your “seed” garlic just before you plant them. Always avoid using the smaller cloves at the center of the plant as they will produce very small cloves or nothing at all. Plant with the tip of the clove at the top, about 2 to 3 inches down in the soil.
Fall-planted garlic cloves should mature in July or August, when the tops of the plants will begin to fall over and dry. Snip off the tops and allow the bulbs to dry for a week out of direct sunlight. If you want to eat or use the cloves for cooking, you can store them for several weeks at room temperature. For longer use, store them at 32 degrees or as close to this temperature as possible. If you want to store some of the cloves for the fall planting, store them at 50 to 50 degrees for about two months minimum.
Q. Someone told me cilantro and coriander are the same plant. Is this true? We have recipes for using these two for different types of meals. We use cilantro for flavoring in our salads and we use what I think are seeds in flavoring sausage and stews. They certainly do not look the same.
— B. D. of Belleville
A. Cilantro has the same scientific name as coriander, Coriandrum sativum. If you want to grow this plant to use the leaves for seasoning, plant it in early September. If you wait to plant it in spring, the plant will bolt and produce flowers, then will produce seed and you will have your coriander. This plant is a semi-hardy annual and can last during the winter depending upon how cold our winter gets and the location of the plantings. If you give it protection from the blowing winter winds, it will survive, especially if you cover it with the polyester fabric sold to prevent spring frosts.