Growing Lemongrass

Growing lemongrass (cymbopogon citratus) can help expand your cooking repertoire!

Lemongrass is native to India and can be dried, powdered, or used fresh.

Asian dishes will come to life with the authentic flavor of this wonderful culinary herb.

If Asian cooking is not your thing, you can add this lemony flavored herb to your favorite teas, or sauces.

Lemongrass looks a bit weedy and is definetly not the prettiest herb, but its flavor makes it an herb well worth growing.

Description

Lemongrass is a perennial herb that grows 3 to 5 feet tall and up to 4 feet wide in zones 9 to 10.

Flowers: Lemongrass rarely flowers, but when it does, the inconspicuous greenish flowers form at the top of the stalks.

Leaves: The leaves are straplike and grow in grassy clumps. The base of each leaf is enlarged and whitish colored.

Flavor and fragrance: Lemongrass has a sharp lemon flavor and fragrance.

How To Grow

When to plant: Start the seeds in pots or seedling flats in early spring. You can transplant after all the danger of frost has passed. Divide the roots by digging the entire plant and dividing it into two or three pieces. Replant at the same depth as before.

Divide established plants in the spring and early summer. When dividing lemongrass, snip off all but 3 to 4 inches of the leaves to reduce the amount of water lost through the leaves.

Where to plant: Lemongrass prefers full sun.

Soil and fertility: Plant in rich, moist garden soil. In container use a medium containing one-third compost, one-third topsoil, and one-sixth vermiculite. Feed the plants with liquid fish emulsion and seaweed at monthly intervals during the summer.

Plant spacing: Space garden plants 2 to 4 feet apart. For container plants, start the seeds in a 6-inch pot and move into successively larger pots as the clump grows. A mature clump of lemongrass grows best in a 5-gallon nursery pot.

Pests: Lemongrass is not bothered by pests other than cats, which eat the leaves and may dig up the plant.

Diseases: Largely disease-free

Harvesting

When to harvest: You can harvest the leaves and stems anytime, once the plants are at least a foot tall.

How to harvest: Gently pull off the older outside bulbous from the base for cooking with. The young leaves can also be cut off and used. Snip off the leaves for making tea.

Drying: Dry in a dehydrator.

Freezing: Freeze in a light oil or in ice cubes.

Uses

Cooking: Use the leaves fresh, dried, or frozen, and bulbous stems in Thai and Vietnamese dishes, stir-fries, soups, pasta, tofu, and vegetables.

Teas: Use the leaves to make herbal teas.

Crafts: Lemongrass leaves will add a lemony fragrance to potpourris and sachets.

I like growing lemongrass not only for its many uses, but also as ground cover for my landscape.