There is no way to stop cilantro from flowering. It is an annual. It is trying to do what Mother Nature intended it to do - sprout fast, live quick, flower, set seed, and die in a short span of time. You can not change this.

Search through the posts here. You will find many people saying the same thing as I have. You will also see from comments made that cilantro resents transplanting and will bolt (flower) often when that is done.

For best and longest (relatively speaking!) cilantro harvest, sow your own seed. I think only marigolds are easier to sprout than cilantro.

FataMorgana

Wow, who knew? I did some google-ing and found that it doesn't like warm weather either, goes to seed over 75 degrees. Sure wish I hadn't cut off all its flowers and had let it seed itself instead. I'll let the baby ones go to seed and hope they will re-grow in their pots.

Thanks for the response!

Nope, no way to stop it, unless you cut it all off at he soil level.

I'm growing cilantro for exactly the same reason - salsa with my tomatoes. In fact I have them growing in the shade between my tomato plants, but I'm afraid they will bolt soon anyway. Hopefully they will last until I get a decent crop of tomatoes for making salsa. But then I still have a good wait before I start getting fruit on the habaneros...might need to buy some hot peppers from the store.

Suggest planting several instances of cilantro seeds spaced about 2-3 weeks apart.

I've had no luck with cilantro this time of year.

Not knowing what I was doing and thinking everything needs to be planted in spring last year, I happily planted some cilantro seeds in pots around this time. Well, it was hot and nothing much came up. What did come up quickly died. I tried lots of seeds and most didn't even germinate.

So I gave up and used those pots for strawberries. Guess what came up between my strawberries in the fall when the weather cooled down. Lots of cilantro. It's about that time I realized that cilantro is a cool weather crop. Had to learn the hard way, I guess.

This thread was so helpful. My cilantro in a pot on the patio already has bolted. I cut it back, but I see now that that won't work. Just planted two more seeds in pots in my garden window. They'll get lots of sun, but the house is cool so here's hoping they grow. I want them for salsa, too, but the tomatoes are at least a month and a half away.

My cilantro has bolted as well. I transplanted a six-pack, and surprisingly it worked. But from now on, I'll do it from seed. Here's hoping that I can get a good crop timed with the tomatoes for salsa!