How to Grow Culantro UK

By the SoilCommander Editorial Team, under the guidance of Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder · · How we check our facts

On this page
  1. Culantro (Eryngium foetidum)
  2. Soil & Growing Conditions
  3. Growth Stages
  4. Quick Facts
  5. Harvest & Storage
  6. Culantro, the Coriander That Survives Summer
  7. Plan your Culantro planting
  8. Growing Culantro in another region
  9. References

Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) — Grown as a biennial in cultivation, though botanically a short-lived perennial -- UF/IFAS describes it as a biennial….

Unlike an annual crop, the work here is front-loaded into establishment: get the planting and the site right and the same plants crop for several seasons.

Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.

Culantro (Eryngium foetidum)

A culantro plant in a pot showing its flat rosette of long saw-edged leaves — “Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) 4” by Mokkie is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Also known as: Ngo Gai, Sawtooth Coriander · 2 sources cited · Verified

Soil & Growing Conditions

A clump of culantro plants with their toothed leaves in shade
A clump of culantro plants with their toothed leaves in shade. Photo: “Eryngium foetidum (18933722178)” by Dick Culbert, CC BY 2.0.

Water: Shade is the important call, not water. UF/IFAS: culantro does best in a shady area, and shade also keeps the plant from bolting. Sources do diverge here -- Useful Tropical Plants records one authority recommending a very sunny position and another a partly shaded site with fertile, not too dry soil -- but for a leaf crop being grown through a hot summer, shade is the recommendation that matches the goal, because bolting is what ends the harvest.

Growth Stages

A single harvested culantro rosette showing the serrated leaf margins
A single harvested culantro rosette showing the serrated leaf margins. Photo by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Stage Notes
Sowing and germination UF/IFAS gives about three weeks from sowing to germination. Seed is best sown fresh, either where it is to grow or in a nursery bed; stem cuttings also work.
Rosette building The plant builds a flat rosette of saw-edged leaves from a taproot. Keep it shaded and the soil moist but drained -- this is the stage where the shade decision pays off later.
Cropping Pick the oldest outer leaves and leave the youngest, taking a few at a time every one to two weeks. A well-shaded plant keeps this up for months.
Bolting Cream-coloured flower stalks signal the end of useful leaf. Removing them as they appear delays the finish; full sun and heat bring it on sooner.

Quick Facts

A culantro plant in a pot showing its flat rosette of long saw-edged leaves
A culantro plant in a pot showing its flat rosette of long saw-edged leaves. Photo: “Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) 4” by Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Factor Value
Soil texture Moist but well-drained soil, and it is moderately salt tolerant (UF/IFAS).
Drainage Well drained but never dry -- the plant will not take drought at the root.
Lifecycle Grown as a biennial in cultivation, though botanically a short-lived perennial -- UF/IFAS describes it as a biennial herb, Useful Tropical Plants as an erect perennial.
Edible parts leaves, root, seeds

Harvest & Storage

Culantro rosettes growing in open ground among leaf litter
Culantro rosettes growing in open ground among leaf litter. Photo by Mokkie, CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to pick: Work from the outside in. UF/IFAS advises removing the oldest leaves closest to the base and leaving the younger ones to mature; Useful Tropical Plants describes taking individual tender leaves while leaving the topmost three intact, yielding 10-15 leaves per plant across 5-10 pickings at one- or two-week intervals before flowering ends the run. The moment cream-coloured flower stalks appear the plant is on its way out as a culinary herb, so cutting them off buys more time.

Storage

Poorly. UF/IFAS notes culantro leaves do not store well, so pick as needed rather than in quantity. Chop finely before use -- the flavour is considerably stronger than coriander and the leaf itself is tough.

Plan your Culantro planting

When to sow and plant Culantro depends on your own frost dates. Check the UK vegetable planting calendar. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.

Growing Culantro in another region

Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.

References

  1. Fetched and read directly. Source for the shade requirement and its role in delaying bolting, three-week germination, moist well-drained soil and moderate salt tolerance, the bottom-up harvesting method, poor storage life, and the contrast with cilantro as a cool-season herb.

  2. Aggregates Cornucopia II, Plant Resources of South-East Asia and Medicinal Plants of the Guianas. Source for plant size and taproot habit, altitude range, propagation from seed or stem cuttings, and the detailed harvest interval.

2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.

Plan next season before the problems start

Most of the advice on this page comes down to timing and spacing — sowing at the right moment, rotating beds, and giving plants enough airflow. The UK Garden Planner lays your plot out month by month so those decisions are already made before the season starts.

Get the UK Garden Planner →

Instant PDF download · Written for UK growing conditions

SoilCommander Editorial Team — under the guidance of Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder

Every growing guide is checked against RHS, USDA Cooperative Extension, and other named horticultural authorities before publishing. How we check our facts.

How this guide is put together

The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against RHS and Met Office guidance. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.

Vegetable Growing Guides UK

Last verified 2026-09-07

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