Coriander

[New Puritan]

I've had a bit of a search through the forum and it's alluded to here and there but nobody has specifically started a thread about it, as far as I can tell.

A small local company have approached me and asked if I would be interested in growing organic coriander for them.

I'd be pleased to hear from coriander growers (organic or conventional) on how they got on with it. It's for the seed rather than the leaves.

Any info on seed suppliers, seed rates, general crop husbandry, harvesting and yields would be helpful.

I'm not thinking of growing a vast area of it - probably just an acre or two to start with to see how I get on. Can I use conventional arable gear for sowing and harvesting it?

Thanks, as ever,
NP.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Lee (Warksfarmer) asked the same question, a couple of years ago.

Sorry can't help.

There was a grower for the ethnic market near Huddersfield, so it can't be hard to grow.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

If I remember correctly @Exfarmer had some field scale back in the day. He certainly had field scale herbs of some types.

 

[Kidds]

I’ve grown it field scale for leaves.
Organic is going to be a nightmare for weeds, finding organic seeds might be a problem (might not).
Prone to bolting if dry and hungry, bolting is not good for seed production as you want as big a plant as possible for the yield so plenty of N. Can’t remember rates but half in seedbed half top dressed later.
My seeds were put in with a precision drill and you may be able to mechanically hoe if they are drilled.

No Asians locally you can ask?

 

[Marsh lad]

There's a couple of growers that grow coriander and fenugreek and other herbs around lakenheath and sedge Fen area on the white land and they grow it on quite a large scale.
One of the main problems with a lot of these leafy herbs are bacterial diseases - although if your growing for seed then maybe it's not such a big deal.

 

[New Puritan]

Thanks everyone. I've not committed to growing it, I'm just testing the water by asking on here and doing some other basic research.

@Kidds - hmm, dry isn't usually an issue with the land I farm. Does an MF30 count as a 'precision drill'?

I have a tatty inter row hoe that could be put to use for just this job...

 

[Cab-over Pete]

I have a customer who grows maybe 10-15 acres for local restaurants.

I don’t know anything more about it except when I have to run through the leftovers it makes my machines tyres stink for days. I can’t stand the bloody smell.

Actually, thinking about it, one year I drove a few miles to spread Fibrophos (incinerated poultry muck) fertiliser on a harvested coriander field. When I got there it looked like there was most of the crop left. A few phone calls confirmed it was all finished with, crack on and spread the field.

I was just finishing when a bus load of Asian folks turned up and starting hand picking the coriander and packing it into crates. I told them what I had done and the gang master didn’t seem worried at all.

I can’t help wonder how many meals were prepared with poultry muck ash included.

 

[Kidds]

I like coriander and use/eat it regularly but some really can't stand it. My cousin whenever sent to pick it was literally throwing up within minutes.
The smell and vapours of cutting it on a field scale are something else.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

You can imagine it when my lgp tyres have been crushing it.

 

[Exfarmer]

You should try harvesting the fresh leaf all day, and night if the driver did not turn up! Or weeding it, my wife would chuck her boots and clothes in the bin!
Easy crop to grow likes fertile well drained land. Warm seed bed. Not sure about growing without weed control though!.
We grew up to 40 acres a year for drying and fresh market.
Sow 1/302 inch deep in a well manured fine seed bed after last chance of frost, late may, harvest of seed should be something like late September, but I never tried it. Popular for gin I believe

 

[Exfarmer]

I have a customer who grows maybe 10-15 acres for local restaurants.

I don’t know anything more about it except when I have to run through the leftovers it makes my machines tyres stink for days. I can’t stand the bloody smell.

Actually, thinking about it, one year I drove a few miles to spread Fibrophos (incinerated poultry muck) fertiliser on a harvested coriander field. When I got there it looked like there was most of the crop left. A few phone calls confirmed it was all finished with, crack on and spread the field.

I was just finishing when a bus load of Asian folks turned up and starting hand picking the coriander and packing it into crates. I told them what I had done and the gang master didn’t seem worried at all.

I can’t help wonder how many meals were prepared with poultry muck ash included.

I was put off when I saw a guy doing his business. In the unpicked crop

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Oh that’s a regular occurrence.

I’ve had the misfortune to witness a picking woman doing the same in a field of salad onions. Hardly moved off the spot, then carried on picking.

 

[Exfarmer]

I have witnessed a couple of men peeing beside a lettuce rig. There was a toilet built in the back! No wonder there are more issues with salad than chicken product.

 

[Kidds]

Oh that’s a regular occurrence.

I’ve had the misfortune to witness a picking woman doing the same in a field of salad onions. Hardly moved off the spot, then carried on picking.

Same
Not from these shores mind.

 

[Marsh lad]

I have a customer who grows maybe 10-15 acres for local restaurants.

I don’t know anything more about it except when I have to run through the leftovers it makes my machines tyres stink for days. I can’t stand the bloody smell.

Actually, thinking about it, one year I drove a few miles to spread Fibrophos (incinerated poultry muck) fertiliser on a harvested coriander field. When I got there it looked like there was most of the crop left. A few phone calls confirmed it was all finished with, crack on and spread the field.

I was just finishing when a bus load of Asian folks turned up and starting hand picking the coriander and packing it into crates. I told them what I had done and the gang master didn’t seem worried at all.

I can’t help wonder how many meals were prepared with poultry muck ash included.

Now you've said that I know exactly who that was [emoji23]

 

[Exfarmer]

The absolute worst, is cleaning up the harvester. The fresh leaf would build up every where and a couple of days old would become a slimey s**t which smelt exactly like dog cr*p. Filthy horrible job! None of the other herbs were like it. Dill was the best lovely smell , could never make it pay though.

 

[New Puritan]

Marvellous, thank you @Marsh lad , @Exfarmer , @Kidds & @ @Cab-over Pete - all very informative. So I need to make sure I have people relieving themselves in amongst it in order to consider myself a proper operator in this market?

@Exfarmer - when you speak of cleaning the harvester, were you growing it for seed then? You haven't painted a very nice picture of it. No wonder the company who've asked me to grow it can't find any...

 

[Exfarmer]

Marvellous, thank you @Marsh lad , @Exfarmer , @Kidds & @ @Cab-over Pete - all very informative. So I need to make sure I have people relieving themselves in amongst it in order to consider myself a proper operator in this market?

@Exfarmer - when you speak of cleaning the harvester, were you growing it for seed then? You haven't painted a very nice picture of it. No wonder the company who've asked me to grow it can't find any...

No we were growing the leaf for drying and putting the leaf into the little pots you find on supermarket shelves .
Neighbour certainly left crop to harvest for seed one year. Not sure about yield

 

[Bogweevil]

Oh that’s a regular occurrence.

I’ve had the misfortune to witness a picking woman doing the same in a field of salad onions. Hardly moved off the spot, then carried on picking.

At least the ladies in my lettuce picking gang went behind the hedge and were, thank heavens, wearing long skirts. Added bonus - they took armfuls of fat hen home for the kitchen.

Back on topic: interesting question though, would imagine it is not too difficult, weeds permitting - seems that don't have much trouble in Alberta: https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex121

 

[New Puritan]

Thank you @Bogweevil - that's a really helpful link you posted there. I especially liked the bit here:

"Coriander is a commonly used domestic remedy, valued especially for its effect on the digestive system, treating flatulence, diarrhoea and colic. It settles spasms in the gut and counters the effects of nervous tension. The raw seed is chewed to stimulate the flow of gastric juices and to cure foul breath, and it will sweeten the breath after garlic has been eaten. Some caution is advised, however, because if used too freely, the seeds can have a narcotic effect."

Who'd a thought that?