How to make cilantro plants more 'leafy'?

I've grown a couple cilantro plants outside in the garden the last two summers. They seem to do quite well and immediately form stalks and start to flower, essentially bypassing the leafy stage. (The leaves you cut up for use in mexican food and such)



Does anyone know how to encourage the cilantro to make more leaves and keep it from quickly forming flowers/seed heads?

How to make cilantro plants more 'leafy'?
Agree to pinch the flower off. The plant is trying to make seeds with flower, keep it from doing that and it will live longer. As a rule, herbs do best when under fertilized. I give mine a weak solution of fish emulsion (5-1-1). They respond pretty well.
Reply:i disagree with the high fertilizer answer.you may be overfeeding the plant(lots of blooms and seed pods)Prune back by 2/3's in the fall to cause new stem and leaf growth.Use a bone meal or dried blood plant food sparingly in the spring only and feed again (sparingly) when you harvest the leaves.
Reply:The are so quick to bolt!



Just keep trimming the blooms off, and feed blood meal or nitrogen
Reply:2 things:



Make sure they're getting plenty of sunlight. at least 4 hours a day, preferably more.



Add a fertilizer high in nitrogen. Nitrogen encourages stem and leaf growth and is represented by the first number on the three-number fertilizer label. (For example 10-10-10 or 12-10-10) The other two numbers represent phosphorous, which stimulates root development and potassium, good for flowering and fruiting.



So picking a fertilizer with a higher first number whould do the trick.
Reply:You have to "pinch" them back - remove the flowers. This will make a bushier, leafier plant.