My favourite herb is coriander, so nearly every time I visit the supermarket, I buy a little pot of it to transplant into a bigger one when I get home. I do this very carefully, try not to disturb the roots, & water them - but they always die! Sometimes they last for about a week, but this last one I bought has died within days. I keep them on the kitchen windowsill, so they get plenty of light. Does anyone know why they always die? Am I doing something wrong?

Hiya,

I wouldn't know what to do with coriander but a quick look on the websphere reveals that little pots of coriander from supermarkets frequently turn up their toes, so it's not just you. A certain J. Oliver has the same problem.

I've a £1 pot of chives bought from Asda just over 3 years ago; the law of the jungle has prevailed so from the many only the 20 or so strongest and fittest plants have survived, and are at this moment doubtless indulging in the chive equivalent of gladiatorial bouts, fighting to the death to be the winner.

Coriander can be difficult to grow anyway, but with all supermarket herbs, they pack way too many in a small space.

You need to carefully separate the plants into smaller clumps, whilst leaving as much root intact as passible. Then plant these into several pots.

I've gained many herb plants doing this and they are much healthier with the increased space and reduced competition.

I generally substitute flat leaf parsley for coriander as the pots grow quite readily. I'm currently growing some from seed too as the flavour is even better then. I've grown coriander too but it often ended up with an odd 'soapy' taste and it goes to seed very quickly.

You mustn't water the pot from the top. Place the pot in a saucer and keep that topped up.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice (splitting the plant into clumps was sooo obvious now I think about it - I've just been shoving the whole lot into one pot). I was beginning to think that the supermarkets had some nefarious plan to get us to buy more herb plants (a secret built-in 'you will die!' ingredient in the soil?)...

I'll try splitting, and also growing from seed - I've plenty of windowsill space and I hadn't actually thought of it before?

Well they do to a certain extent - the plants are forced in hothouses so when they then sit (unwatered) on the shelves before going home to a cool, dry house they struggle even with the best of care.

Hmm, I thought as much...

Statement just found on a science forum:-

"Since these plants are intended for use as a 'one-off' in your kitchen and the grower/retailer does not want to be sued by you for an infestation caused by their product, I think it probable that the growing medium will be sterile. It could be a spent compost mixed with a low absorbency fibre. (I am guessing here). If this is the case, the plant would have been nurtured by some means of hydroponics. By the time it gets to the supermarket, there will be very little nutrient left in the growing medium, perhaps just enough for a few days or so. It will remain sterile, thus you wont find a slug or earwig creeping out into your kitchen during the night.

Simply watering the plant would not keep it alive, but use of a water soluble fertiliser might prolong it's life. Or, plant out into a good compost. But it would be easier to buy plants from a garden centre, where they would be planted in pots filled with a suitable medium for growing. Alternatively, you can buy packs of mixed herb seeds and grow them yourself."

This sounds pretty feasible to me! (A 'sterile growing medium' does indeed sound like a nefarious plan - I feel vindicated, lol...) I've noticed that the stuff in the pots does contain lots of little white bits ('a low absorbency fibre'?) and I've been carefully including all this material in my potting on - clearly a bad idea. (I might give this one last go, but I'm now inclined to go down the garden centre route...)

I've never had much luck with supermarket herbs either, but I recently bought a pot of 'grow your own' basil from Wilkinson. It wasn't a plant, just a pot of soil and seeds that you sow yourself, and was about £1. I wasn't expecting much, but it's grown brilliantly. They also had coriander and another (parsley perhaps?) so I might pick those up when I'm next in town.

Thanks for that tip!

I've bought pots of chives from supermarkets and they seem to last quite a while, as long as you keep cutting them.
Someone gave me some cut mint from their garden. I put it in a glass with some water, just to stop it wilting, and it surprised me by carrying on growing. That lasted me quite a while too.
I wish I had a garden to grow stuff in, but alas I'm in a flat, so only have the kitchen windowsill.

I have never had much luck with supermarket herbs but a quick trip to the garden centre has revolutionised my window sill herbs, little more expensive but cheaper than repeat buying from the supermarkets.

You can do a lot on that and the satisfaction of putting your own herbs into a dish is just wonderful.

Coriander is a pain to grow so I just buy small quantities cheaply from Aldi.

Medium sized pots from Waitrose seem good value (Basil, Parsley, Thyme) and may last even longer if split . Some of the red sticker ones are not to be sneezed at either.

If growing your own I recommend sterilising the compost first. Put it in a pot or bowl (not plastic!) and microwave for five minutes on medium (about 500w). It is amazing what finds its way into fresh compost.....

Hmm, trust me to pick the most difficult herb to grow!

That's very interesting about sterilising the compost/soil - the 'science bit' I quoted previously implied that sterilising was a bad thing (doesn't it kill everything in the soil - good guys and bad guys?). What are the actual advantages (and disadvantages, if any) of sterilised compost? (I was repotting into soil from the garden - a bad idea?)