Coriander after a long time

"A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them."- Liberty Hyde Bailey

In my child hood days, we had a small garden which my parents maintained.My dad is the main sower and what ever he sows literally flourishes. I remember a huge coriander patch from those days whose smell still lingers in my thoughts.I recall loads of chillies and brinjals hanging in the plants. I am trying to recreate the same scenario in our garden but boy, it is difficult.Now I understand how much my parents cared for the plants that they flourished so much.

Last year,I tried many times to grow coriander and every time it failed. I had tried sowing in the pots and in the ground and using various seeds sourced from different vendors and each one of those attempts ended in vain.Most of the seeds never took life.. Only one or two seeds would sprout and grow and when they are mature we would never have the heart to pluck them and so we'll let them to seed.

I figured the main problem in my failed attempts is the quality of the seeds. My father used to use the coriander seeds directly from the kitchen cupboard and I followed his method. Maybe it is because nowadays most of the vendors sell processed dhaniya/coriander seeds to last longer. After so many attempts,I finally resorted to buy coriander from a dedicated seed vendor - the ones which cannot be used in kitchen and should be used only in the garden.

Mix of corinader,palak,carrot,beetroot seeds

This time I prepared three pots and did not sow just coriander alone.I mixed few palak/spinach, carrot,fennel, beetroot seeds as well and sowed them in early January. Against our odds at luck,this time almost all the seeds sprouted. 

Then came the watering woes.As the micro greens were very thin legged and ready to fall over even at the slightest of a disturbance,we had to follow a strict watering process ...just a sprinkling of a handful of water in an angle such that the roots were not disturbed. We water early in the morning and the pots were kept in the shade most of the days.

This is the current state.

Palak peeping out in between the coriander sprouts

Another look at palak

Beetroot's true leaves coming out

Still there is a long way to go to get them to maturity and we are very determined to get them there as long as the plants co-operate :)..Our plan is that the coriander will mature within 20 days, so once they are harvested there will be plenty of space for palak and beetroot to grow. And we do not expect any beetroot tubers-we would be happy to get only their healthy purple leaves.It is such a relish and very hard to come by.

Fingers crossed.