Coriander / Cilantro — DutchGreenhouses

Coriander is grown for its leaf in most markets, sold fresh into cuisines with steady year-round demand. It is one of the herbs a mixed nutrient-film house carries to widen its range rather than growing on its own.

What the crop needs

The crop is short-cycle and grown in nutrient film. Its defining risk is how quickly it moves from harvestable leaf to a flowering stem, which is driven by temperature and day length rather than by the calendar, so planting schedule is the grower’s main control.

What the greenhouse has to do

Coriander bolts if it is held too long, so the house is built to clear it on time. The crop runs short and the saleable window is narrow, which makes scheduling and evenness worth more than peak growth: a batch that arrives in two halves is a batch that ships as one and gets rejected as one.

It rarely justifies a house on its own. Coriander earns its place inside a mixed nutrient-film programme, sharing one water system, one climate and one pack line with the other short herbs. That is the design case — channels that can be reassigned between crops, a nutrient system that suits several of them, and a layout that lets one crop be cleared without disturbing its neighbours.

DutchGreenhouses® designs the structure, climate and irrigation around the herb programme as a whole, so a mixed house can carry several short crops on one system. Get in touch to discuss a herb project.

Sweet basil

The highest-value fresh herb, and effectively two crops.

Flat-leaf parsley

Cut once, then cut again — the return is in the regrowth.

Spearmint

Perennial, vigorous, and best given its own channel.

Hydroponics

Substrate growing with drip supply and drain recirculation.

Cut on time, eaten on time

Coriander has a narrow window. The plant moves from harvestable leaf towards a flowering stem quickly, and the flavour shifts as it does, so the crop is cut when it is ready rather than when the schedule is convenient. Everything the grower does is arranged around that window.

A long supply chain spends the same window twice. Leaf cut at the right moment then sits in transit, giving up the scent it was cut for, and arrives at the point where a grower would already have downgraded it. The care taken over timing in the greenhouse is undone by the distance behind it.

Near its market, the crop keeps the timing it was grown to. It is cut at the right stage and used at the right stage, and the channels are cleared on schedule for the next planting rather than held for a departure.

Nutrition facts

Coriander (cilantro) leaves, raw

Per 100 g

Energy: 23 kcal
Fat: 0.52 g
Carbohydrate: 3.67 g
Sugars: 0.87 g
Fiber: 2.8 g
Protein: 2.13 g
Sodium: 46 mg
Potassium: 521 mg
Vitamin C: 27 mg

Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 169997

Questions

Coriander, asked and answered

Can it be grown alongside other herbs?

That is usually the point. It shares a nutrient-film system, a climate and a pack line with the other short herbs, and the channels are reassigned as the programme changes.

What is the main risk with coriander?

Bolting. The saleable window is narrow, so the value is in clearing the crop on schedule rather than in growing it larger.

What does a mixed herb house need that a single-crop house does not?

Flexibility. Channels that can be reassigned, a nutrient system that suits several crops, and a layout that lets one crop be cleared without disturbing the others.

From the knowledge base