When to Plant Cilantro

Planting time for cilantro is set by your frost dates, not by the calendar month. Sow directly in the garden about 2 weeks before your last frost, as soon as the ground is workable. From there it takes roughly 45 days to the first harvest. Cilantro is a half-hardy crop, and it keeps going about 14 days past a light frost, which is what makes a fall crop worth planting. Pick your zone below for exact dates, or find your zone by ZIP if you are not sure which one you are in.

Cilantro bolts within weeks in summer heat and is far more productive as a fall crop, and in mild zones it runs right through winter.

Fall dates are counted backward from your first frost, not forward from a sowing date. Take the 45 days cilantro needs, add about two weeks because growth slows once days shorten after the equinox, then subtract the roughly 14 days cilantro keeps going once light frost arrives. That is 45 days before your first frost. The coldest zone where this still works on the averages is Zone 3a.

For the whole-garden version of this arithmetic, see the fall planting calendar by zone, and how to read and stretch your first frost date.

Cilantro grows well next to kale, broccoli and tomatoes. Its flowers, once it bolts, are one of the better documented draws for wasps and hoverflies that control cabbage worms and aphids. The full grid for all 24 crops is in the companion planting chart.