- 2 days ago
Grow lots of coriander at home with a simple, old-fashioned method that turns a forgotten plastic bottle into a productive window herb garden. This guide shows how to prepare a hanging container, choose rich compost soil, and sow coriander densely so you can harvest fresh leaves again and again instead of buying wilted bunches from the store.
The method also explains a little-known seed trick: coriander seeds are really two seeds inside one hard shell, and gently splitting them before soaking can help them sprout faster and more evenly. You’ll also learn the right watering balance, why coriander prefers cool, bright conditions, and how to clip the outer leaves while leaving the center growing for repeated harvests.
Perfect for beginner gardening, window herb growing, container gardening, and anyone looking for a low-cost way to grow herbs at home. It also covers succession planting, seed saving, and simple kitchen garden ideas that fit small spaces.
Ideal for searches like how to grow coriander, growing cilantro at home, herb garden for beginners, container gardening, window herb garden, and easy gardening tips. If you want fresh coriander, practical home gardening advice, and a frugal growing method that works in small spaces, this tutorial fits the search.
The method also explains a little-known seed trick: coriander seeds are really two seeds inside one hard shell, and gently splitting them before soaking can help them sprout faster and more evenly. You’ll also learn the right watering balance, why coriander prefers cool, bright conditions, and how to clip the outer leaves while leaving the center growing for repeated harvests.
Perfect for beginner gardening, window herb growing, container gardening, and anyone looking for a low-cost way to grow herbs at home. It also covers succession planting, seed saving, and simple kitchen garden ideas that fit small spaces.
Ideal for searches like how to grow coriander, growing cilantro at home, herb garden for beginners, container gardening, window herb garden, and easy gardening tips. If you want fresh coriander, practical home gardening advice, and a frugal growing method that works in small spaces, this tutorial fits the search.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00That bunch of fresh coriander you buy at the store, that you use a little of and watch
00:05the rest wilt to slime in the icebox in three days, you could have growing fresh on your
00:10windowsill, endless, cutting what you need, when you need it, and never buy another bunch.
00:16And you can grow it in a thing you were about to throw in the bin, an old plastic bottle,
00:22hung up in a sunny window, taking no ground and hardly any room at all.
00:27Today I am going to show you how, the old, thrifty way, and one seed trick near no one
00:34knows that makes it come up thick and fast where most folks barely comes up at all.
00:40So keep up, for by the end you will grow more coriander in a hung up bottle than you ever
00:46bought for pennies.
00:48I am Elias, and growing your own fresh herbs where you have no ground, in a window from
00:55a thrown away bottle, is a fine piece of the old thrift, food from what others waste, so
01:01let me hand you the whole of it.
01:04Quick word before I go further.
01:06The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:12I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:17The book is the long version.
01:19If you want it, it is there.
01:21I will not mention it again.
01:24My grandmother grew her herbs in whatever came to hand, old tins and cracked crocks and
01:30cut-down vessels lined up along her kitchen window, and she never bought a herb in her
01:36life nor let a good container go in the rubbish.
01:39A window full of green is worth a hundred store bunches, Elias, she would say, and it costs you
01:46the seed and the trouble, and no more.
01:49She taught me to see a planter in every cast-off thing, and this bottle trick is right in that
01:56spirit, so let me hand it to you.
01:59First the making of your planter from the bottle, for it costs you nothing.
02:04You take an old plastic bottle, the larger the better, a big drink bottle or a jug, rinsed
02:11clean.
02:12Now you can do it two ways.
02:14You can cut the top off and stand it up as a deep little pot, or, and this is the
02:20clever,
02:20thrifty way that takes no counter space at all, you lay it on its side and cut a long window
02:27out of the top side of it, a good long opening, leaving the two ends and the bottom hole so
02:33it becomes a long trough.
02:34Then you poke a few small holes in the underneath for drainage.
02:39This you must not skip, for without drainage the soil sours and rots the roots.
02:45And you can punch a hole in each end and run a bit of string or wire through and hang
02:51the
02:51whole thing up in your sunny window so it takes not a bit of your counter or sill, just hangs
02:57there in the light.
02:58A long trough hung in the window grows you a fine lot of coriander in no room at all.
03:05And a small point worth knowing, that a clear bottle lets the light in on the soil and the
03:10roots where they would rather be dark.
03:13So if you can, wrap the outside of it in a bit of paper or cloth, or use a bottle
03:19that
03:19is not clear, to keep the roots in the dark they like, though it will grow well enough
03:24clear if that is all you have.
03:26And you can hang a whole row of them in a window, one above another, and grow a good lot
03:32in a
03:32space no wider than the window itself.
03:35Cut it, hole it, shade the roots, and hang it up.
03:39Now the soil, for here is where I do it my own way and not the fussy, modern way.
03:45You will see folk grow this with no soil at all, in strange, soilless stuffs fed with bottled
03:52chemical liquids, and I will have none of it, for it is dear and it is not the old, honest
03:58way.
03:59You fill your bottle trough with good soil, a rich, crumbly compost soil, plenty of good
04:06compost or old rotted matter mixed through it, loose and light, for coriander wants a
04:12rich but well draining soil to grow lush and fast.
04:16Fill it near full, firmed gently, leaving a little room at the top for watering.
04:22Rich compost soil in your bottle, and it needs no bottled feed at all.
04:27The compost feeds it.
04:29Now here comes the one great secret that makes all the difference.
04:33The seed trick.
04:35So heed this close, for it is why most folks' coriander comes up thin and slow and patchy,
04:42and yours will come up thick and fast.
04:46Look at a coriander seed, that little round tan ball.
04:50Now here is the thing near no one knows, that it is not one seed at all, it is two.
04:57Two seeds joined inside the one hard round husk, and that hard husk is why coriander is
05:05so slow and patchy to sprout, for the seeds inside must fight their way out of it, and many
05:12never do.
05:13So the trick is to open that husk for them.
05:17You take your seeds, and you gently crush them, just enough to crack and split that round husk
05:24in two, not to smash the seeds within, just a gentle press under a jar or a rolling pin,
05:31or between your palms, and each ball splits into its two halves and frees the two seeds inside.
05:39And now, from every seed ball you split, you get two plants instead of a chance at one.
05:47And they come up quick and thick, for the husk that held them back is broken.
05:53Split your seed before you sow, and it comes up double and fast.
05:59Now if you have not the patience to split them, you can sow them whole, and they will come up
06:05in the end, only slower and thinner.
06:08So do not think it must be done, only that it does a world of good, and is worth the
06:13few minutes.
06:15And a word of care in the crushing.
06:17Go gentle, a light press only, for you want to crack the husk apart, not grind the seed within
06:25to powder, so press just till you hear and feel them split, and no harder.
06:32Gentle split, husk apart, seed whole.
06:37And one more help, after you split them, soak your seeds overnight in a bit of water,
06:43which softens them further and wakes them, so they sprout quicker still.
06:49So split the seed, soak it overnight, and you have done what makes coriander come up thick and fast,
06:56instead of thin and slow.
06:59And do not use the seed sold as a spice on the kitchen shelf, if it has been heat treated,
07:05or is very old, for some of that will not sprout.
07:10Use fresh, whole seed meant for growing, or the plump seed from your own bolted plants,
07:17which sprouts best of all.
07:20Now the sowing.
07:21And here is a thing about coriander.
07:24You sow it thick, thicker than most things, scattered close over the whole surface of your soil.
07:31For you are not growing it out into big plants with room,
07:35you are growing a thick, lush stand of leaf to cut and cut.
07:41So scatter your split, soaked seed thick over the soil, cover it with a thin layer of soil,
07:48no more than a quarter inch, and water it gently.
07:53Sow thick for a thick cutting stand.
07:57Now the tending, and it is little.
08:01You keep the soil moist, not soggy, watering gently when the top begins to dry,
08:07and, being a small, shallow bottle, it will want checking often, so it does not dry right out.
08:14And you set it in good light, a bright window, for it wants sun to grow lush.
08:20Though hear me on one thing.
08:22Coriander is a cool weather herb, and in fierce heat and blazing sun, it bolts, shoots up to flower
08:31and seed too soon, and stops making leaf.
08:35So it does best in the cooler weather and the milder light.
08:39And in the fierce heat of summer, you give it a bit of shade from the hardest sun,
08:44or grow it more in the cool of spring and fall, and even through a mild winter on the sill.
08:52Cool and bright and moist, and it grows you lush leaf.
08:57And in a week or so, split and soaked as it was, up it comes thick and green.
09:05Now the harvest, the whole reward.
09:09And here is how you make it endless.
09:12When your coriander is grown up a good few inches, a nice bushy stand of it, you do not pull
09:19the plants up, you cut.
09:21You snip the outer, older leaves and stems as you need them, taking from the outside,
09:28and leaving the young heart of each plant to grow on.
09:32And it keeps pushing out fresh new leaves for you to cut again and again, for weeks.
09:39Cut and come again.
09:42So from the one sowing, you harvest over and over, a little at a time, whenever the pot calls for
09:49it.
09:50Always fresh, never wilting in the ice box.
09:54Just do not shear the whole thing to the ground at once, and strip it bare.
09:59For a plant with no leaves left cannot feed itself to grow more.
10:03So take a third or so at a cutting, and leave the rest to carry on.
10:08And it comes back quicker for being left some.
10:11And the thinnings, when you sow thick and thin out the crowded ones as they crowd,
10:16do not throw those little seedlings out. They are tender and good. Eat them. The first small harvest
10:23before the cutting even begins. Snip the outer leaves, leave the hearts, and it gives and gives.
10:30And here is the way to have it truly endless, and never a gap.
10:34So a fresh little bottle every couple of weeks, one coming on behind the other, so that as the
10:40one tires and bolts, the next is coming ready to cut, and you are never without a fresh stand of
10:47it.
10:47A new bottle every fortnight, and fresh coriander at your hand without end.
10:52And here is a fine turn at the end of it, for coriander does eventually tire and want to bolt,
10:59to shoot up its flower stalk and go to seed. And instead of fighting that,
11:03you let a few of them do it, and gather the reward. For those flowers turn to seed,
11:09and that seed is coriander seed. The spice. The very thing. So you get a second crop off the same
11:16plant.
11:17The leaf all along, and then the seed at the end. Two harvests from one sowing. And better yet,
11:24that seed is your free seed for the next sowing. So from one little bottle of coriander,
11:30you have your leaf, your spice seed, and all the seed you need to grow it again, on and on,
11:37never buying either the herb nor the seed again. Let a few bolt, gather the seed, and you are set
11:44forever. Now let me say a small plain word, not a who-prophets sermon, for a coriander seed is no
11:51one s scheme. But notice what grew all this, an old bottle from the bin, a fill of your own
11:58compost
11:58soil, a pinch of seed split with your fingers, and a sunny window. Not a bought pot, not a soilless
12:06kit, not a bottle of chemical feed, not a thing of any real cost. And it gives you endless fresh
12:13coriander where you buy a wilting bunch every week, and the spice seed besides, and next year s seed free.
12:21There is a whole trade in selling folk the fresh herb in a plastic clamshell every few days, and the
12:27fancy,
12:28soilless growing kits, and their bottled feeds besides, when a thrown away bottle, and a bit of
12:34soil and a split seed grow it all better for near nothing. So folk come to think fresh herbs must
12:41be
12:41bought fresh forever, or grown with a costly kit, when they grow in a bottle on the sill from what
12:47you were throwing out. That old thrift, of growing your own fresh food in a window from a bit of
12:53rubbish,
12:54and a pinch of seed is worth more than any bought bunch or kit. So there is the old thrifty
13:00way to
13:01grow endless coriander in a bottle on your windowsill. Cut and whole and hang an old bottle for a free
13:07planter. Fill it with rich compost soil, no bottled feed needed. Split your seed to free the two seeds in
13:15each husk, and soak it overnight, so it comes up thick and fast. Sow it thick for a cutting stand,
13:22keep it cool and bright and moist. Then snip the outer leaves, and it gives and gives, and let a
13:29few
13:30bolt at the end for the spice seed, and your free seed, to grow it again. Do these, and from
13:36an old
13:36bottle and a pinch of seed, you will have fresh coriander at your hand the year round, for pennies,
13:43and never buy a wilting bunch again. Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down below whether you
13:49had ever known that a coriander seed is really two, and that splitting it makes it come up thick and
13:55fast,
13:56for that one surprises near everyone, and whether you will grow yourself a bottle of it. And tell me
14:01your county, and what other herbs you would grow in a window this way, for near all of them will
14:07grow
14:07in a hung up bottle the same. I read every one. Next time, I want to show you the growing
14:12of more
14:13of your food from the kitchen scraps you throw away, the onion bottoms and the celery ends, and the
14:19sprouted things set to grow again on a sunny sill. The same thrift as this, fresh food the year round,
14:26from what was bound for the bin. The old people grew fresh food in the smallest of spaces, in a
14:33window,
14:33in a box, in a cast-off bottle hung in the light, from a pinch of seed and a bit
14:39of soil, and the
14:40knowing of an old trick or two, and so had greens and herbs at their hand the year round, with
14:47almost
14:47nothing bought. There is a quiet wisdom in that, in seeing a little garden in a thrown away bottle,
14:54in needing no ground and no kit and no bought feed, only a sunny sill and the old thrifty knowing.
15:03The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.