Buy a 1-2 +30-50 watt 5000k CFLs from home depot and use them to provide lighting in a area of your home that stays above 40 degrees. Make sure the lights are on more then 12 hours (so it keeps the cilantro from flowering).

It should be really easy under lights as a quick, cut and come again type crop. You probably will need to make plantings about every 3 or 4 weeks to keep a steady supply.

I grow it over winter on a windowsill in the UK. As long as it gets light you'll get some leaves, although it won't do as well as it would outside in the summer.

You need a grow tent if you got enough cilantro to plant. Also you can get a fluorescent light on the top. I used to plant herb indoor in this way.

I never grow any veggies inside. But with cilantro, you do NOT need heat, but light. Few cilantros that I planted last fall have survived many nights of 15F freezes.
I would just keep them on the coldest window sill with light and air circulation to avoid too much heat.
sprinkle them lightly with cool refreshing water at night, to mimick rain.

* Posted by nullzero 9 (My Page) on
Tue, Dec 22, 09 at 2:51

"Buy a 1-2 +30-50 watt 5000k CFLs from home depot and use them to provide lighting in a area of your home that stays above 40 degrees. Make sure the lights are on more then 12 hours (so it keeps the cilantro from flowering)."

I replaced the 23 watt CFL I was using with a 42 watt CFL and increased the time under light to 15 hours. My cilantro is doing better. By "5000k" do you mean full-spectrum daylight? No Home Depots here in Steamboat Springs. Before I go online and order one, I'm wondering if full-spectrum would increase the chance of bolting?

5000K means cool white. Full spectrum is also good. Either one will give the plant more of the blue wavelengths needed for foliage growth, and less of the red used for flowering, than a warm white bulb.

I bought a Sonnylight Kitchen Garden and started yet crop of cilantro. I began with the "sprouts only" setting and they came up quickly (for cilantro). Then I switched to the "Standard Leaf - No Fruit" setting (as recommended in the User Guide for herbs). The top of the seedlings are only 1/2 - 2 inches from the light and it's on 16 hrs a day. The temperature runs between 69 and 77 degrees. After 2 weeks the seedlings are tall and leggy and have yet to put out true leaves. My oregano seems very happy at these settings.
What have I done to cause this legginess? Should I change my light setting to "Broad Leaf "(for lettuce), "Standard Leaf Fruiting" (for vegies & berries), or "Flowering Plants" (for flowers)? If I did, would my herbs go to seed?
I already asked the folks at Sonnylight, but didn't receive an answer.

That's an LED setup that only gives you 15W. I'm surprised anything will grow under it. I'm not surprised you ended up with leggy cilantro. I'm sorry you wasted $300 on that!

I have successfully grown cilantro indoors either in a VERY sunny window or under fluorescents for decades. I use 6500k bulbs these days in T8 fixtures. As another poster noted, cilantro needs plenty of light, but tolerates cooler temps.

Also as a plant gets taller, it needs more light. So even though cilantro can be cut back and it will regrow when planted outdoors, I generally just pull the entire plant when I want some cilantro. I just keep replanting and rotating. And if a plant gets to that stage where it needs to be used before it sploofs over and turns leggy and seedy, I can pull it up by the root and keep it in a glass of water with the top loosely covered for-virtually-ever.

It doesn't get as big or thick as when grown outdoors - not under a couple of fluorescents at least, though I'm about to find out how it might do under TEN bulbs per shelf, but it gets big enough to be useful. But only if it gets enough light.

That LED setup is cute, but for $300 you could have a he!!uva T8 fluorescent setup, or even the 54W T5s, including a sturdy 4' long wire shelf from which to hang your fixtures.

I'm sure you're right about the fluorescent setup. I used to start seedlings for my garden under florescent lights. But I have no room here for such a setup. So I have to make do.
I changed the setting on my LED to "broad leaf" and the cilantro seems to be doing a bit better, having finally put out its first true leaves. The oregano looks unaffected.
I'm going to add a compact florescent and see if that helps.

The more light you can get on to it, whatever way you can do it, the better.

Here in the Northwest Colorado mountains, the temperature can drop to 20 degrees below zero (or lower) at night. Even double paned windows develop ice on the inside. My plants would freeze.

Do you use seed packets to grow Cilantro? If you are growing indoor during winter months, do you use potting soil? Can you please write procedure in brief as to how to grow cilantro indoors, either under lights or on windowsill.

jd, there is a great deal of information about growing herbs from seed on line. Take a little time to skim over some articles as well as some of the older posts right in this forum. You'll soon see that there are many ways to try growing herbs from seed.

Then, come back and start your own brand new thread rather than post to one over five years old.

Click here for lots of information