What Is Lemongrass and Why Should You Grow It?
I’m crammed in my front yard garden right now not to show you this beautiful basil, or this amazing, amazing flower. But this somewhat boring looking grass behind me, which is lemongrass can minister to hear from Epic gardening where it’s my goal to help you grow a greener thumb and despite its visual appearance, it is an extremely easy to grow useful, flavorful, aromatic herb I suppose you could call it but it really is a grass that you can grow in your garden.
Two Main Varieties of Lemongrass: West Indian vs. East Indian
Cymbopogon Citratus: The Best Culinary Lemongrass
So in today’s video, we’re going to go A to Z exactly how to grow propagate and care for lemongrass—and if you want even more detailed information, check out this complete lemongrass growing guide without further ado, cultivate that like button for 20,000 gallons of Tom Kha soup. And let’s get in to the video hiding behind this basil bush right here. I have another lesson planned, but there are two main types. So you have Cymbopogon citratus, which is West Indian lemongrass, which is the more commonly used one for culinary purposes then Cymbopogon flexuosus are flexible some of the forgot which and that’s East Indian lemongrass, it’s a little bit smaller in its growth habit, not as fragrant but can still be used as far as light and temperature goes.
Lemongrass Light and Temperature Requirements
If we think again, always think about where the plant came from. So this is a tropical plant. It really loves the heat and it really loves a lot of sun. So this direction right here going this way is south facing so this is getting hit by sun all the time. Now this basil Bush is shading it out slightly but it’s going to want six to eight hours of sun and a decent amount of heat. In fact, it really doesn’t do that well if temps dropped below around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Best Soil and Moisture Conditions for Growing Lemongrass
So we’re back in the shade here section where I’ve propagated quite a bit of lemongrass over here to talk about watering now I wanted something a little low maintenance and lemongrass is a plant that wants to remain damp to some degree at all times. It really doesn’t want that soil to dry out. And so I sacrificed maybe a couple hours of direct sun for a little bit slower growth, but I want to make sure that it was damp at all times.
How to Water Lemongrass: Drip Irrigation and Soil Tips
So that’s what you really want to do as far as watering goes and watering with drip tape here and it really doesn’t dry out as this soil is a little bit heavier in clay which speaks to the type of soil that it wants. It can tolerate a wide variety of soil conditions. If you want to mix your own soil to grow it in a container. I would say just use a standard potting mix. You could even add a little native topsoil in there if you wanted to fill it out a little bit. But that’s pretty much it.
How to Fertilize Lemongrass with High-Nitrogen Organic Fertilizer
Now if you want to fertilize which I haven’t yet found to be necessary for my lemon grass, you’d want to skew towards an organic fertilizer that’s a little higher on the nitrogen at the end of the NPK because again, we’re not growing it for anything but it’s vegetation. And its root its root section, which you’ll see in a second and that’s going to using up quite a bit of nitrogen to get those leaves nice and full. So if you do want to do that, maybe sprinkle some chicken manure around or any other high nitrogen organic fertilizer.
Why Lemongrass Is Easy to Propagate Forever
Now, my favorite part probably growing lemongrass is the fact that once you grow it successfully once you really have it for life because you can propagate it many, many different ways. And in just a second I’ll show you a really cool tip with my friends who pani but let’s talk about it for a second.
Propagate by division
How to Split Lemongrass Clumps for Division Propagation
So the first and most common way is probably to propagated by division, you have these clumps that will grow up. And what you’ll notice here is I have two separate ones. So I could just split these right down the middle. And as long as there’s root tissue on both they’re going to keep going they’re going to start their own new lemongrass clumps and they’ll be completely fine and you can grow it from seed. I don’t think that’s the best use of time unless it’s just purely for the joy of growing lemongrass from seed just a lot slower. Now the cool part is take a look right here. You can see this sort of dead rotting away piece of lemongrass and you won’t be wondering, well what’s this from?
Propagate By Roots
Tip from a Thai Chef: Replanting Harvested Lemongrass Roots
So I learned this tip from my friend it’s a Pawnee who runs a really beautiful and delicious Thai restaurant in San Diego called Super honey house of Thai. So I went to her garden where she grows all the lemongrass for her restaurant. And I learned a really cool propagation tip
all these always wake them up these one is good.
So this is for our eating
Auntie’s gonna go in the house so you can be plant these ones. That’s why they can’t
smell. I wish you guys could smell through the screen right now. It smells so nice.
Do you see some little Yeah.
So basically, every time you harvest, you get to replant every single thing
and this is like maybe a week ago,
and they’re already coming up. Coming up because it’s so easy like grass. Yeah.
And yeah,
there you go. Easy. Super honey from soup Honey, how SubTi pretty cool tip for my friends. Honey. In fact, the lemongrass in the patch that you saw this or this video right? Over there is a patch that I started from these little sections of root and it’s beautiful because you can actually still harvest the rest of the lemongrass.
Pruning and Annual Maintenance for Lemongrass Plants
Overwintering Lemongrass in Cold Climates
So let’s talk a little bit about some annual maintenance some pruning and then finally harvesting so if you’re gonna zone is colder than I would say maybe 45 degrees as you get towards winter. You want to dig those clumps up and store them in a warmer place over winter if you want them to come back because if they freeze so that they just will actually fully die and you’ll have to go buy start new lemongrass. If you’re in a warmer zone than what you can do is you can just harvest as you please and it will keep on coming back. And so speaking of that, what you would do and these are young,
How to Harvest Lemongrass Stalks for Cooking
the part that you’re really wanting when you’re growing lemongrass, as you peel these back is this little section right in here that just smells so good that you can still use the leaves but the leaves are best used extremely fresh and do not store well whereas these can store well. So you would take off a nice thick chunk of the stem, you’d strip off maybe a couple of these leaves and you’d isolate that white inner material and what you could do is you can dice that up and freeze it or of course you could just use it fresh. Now some other things that you’ll want to do as your lemongrass grows. I imagine this pushes out a lot is as you see dead stalks and stems, you can just pull those and then just clean it up. You know it likes to kind of bush out and then not every single thing will make it so you just kind of clean it up as you go. But really, it is a really easy plant to grow.
Troubleshooting Yellowing Leaves and Common Lemongrass Problems
If you see things like yellowing leaves, then it’s either under watering or probably a low nitrogen issue. So you can just correct one of those two problems. There’s a host of pests and diseases that can attack it, but it’s no different really than any other thing you’ll find in the garden. And so we’ve got videos on how to deal with all of those but guys, lemongrass is a great way to like pepper it into your beds, throw it in places that other things wouldn’t thrive. And then you get this beautiful, beautiful plant that you can harvest and use as well. So I hope you enjoyed all my favorite plants to grow good luck in the garden and keep on growing.
Growing Lemongrass in Southeast Asian Cooking: An Overview
Hello to each and every one of you in today’s video as you can tell behind me it is going to be all about lemongrass lemongrass in the Malay Dalek is what we like to call it and it is one of the most amazing herbs to have in your garden. We love using it for a lot of different dishes. Especially for soups for salads for stir fries, is so many dishes. It is one of the most amazing herbs typically use in Southeast Asia, as well as all over the world. So in today’s video, I wanted to show you our lemongrass crop this year, how long we’ve been growing it how we’ve been taking care of it. And then we’re going to be harvesting it storing it. I’m gonna be showing you different ways to use the stocks as well since a lot of you are curious from my previous lemongrass video. So I hope this video is helpful and informative for those who are interested in wanting to learn a little bit more about lemongrass. If you love growing Southeast Asian herbs and aromatics, you might also want to grow four types of ginger nearby — they thrive in similar conditions and pair beautifully with lemongrass in the kitchen.
Complete Guide to Harvesting Lemongrass and Preparing for Root Propagation
How to Store Lemongrass Over Winter in a Glass Jar
So let’s just get straight to it is show you our living grass crop this year. Let’s go so here is the lemongrass that we saved last year has been sitting in a glass face in water for about a couple of months now. Usually we will harvest lemon grass in a fall around maybe mid October or early October and save some put it in a glass jar, fill it with water and let it sit by the window to get some sunlight until springtime or until they are ready to be vented.
Changing the Water and Monitoring Root Growth Through Winter
as it sits through the wintertime we do like to change the water at least once a week or about three times a month. And we like to fill it about halfway up with cold water and then place it back up by the window again. And as time goes by you will start to notice the roots sprouting out like this.
Can You Grow Lemongrass from Grocery Store Stalks?
So a lot of you might be curious if you can actually grow lemongrass from buying the store Butlins so this year I experimented with it and I will show you how it went.
How to Choose Quality Lemongrass Stalks at the Grocery Store
So before you actually buy lemongrass box at your local Asian grocery store or any store that provides it, make sure you pick and look at the quality of the stock. So when you’re going to the store, I usually like to look at the bottom of the stock here. And what you’re specifically looking for is the bulb here. The bulb here should still be intact. That means when you’re growing it, the roots will continue to sprout out so just pick stocks that still have the bulb here slowly attack. A bad example would be something like this. The Bob has been cut a little bit too much. And you can tell it’s fairly dry and cracked in the middle here. So just putting it side by side so you can tell which one is good and which one is bad.
How to Propagate Grocery Store Lemongrass in Water
We’re going to pick a bundle of lemongrass. So when buying lemongrass stalks from the grocery store, it usually comes of four stuck like this without the actual leaves. But before we actually propagate it we are going to trim off the top part so using a really sharp kitchen scissors, just cut it about halfway through like this and here I have a glass jar filled with cold tap water and we’re just going to place the lemongrass box right in and allow this to sit for at least two to three weeks. You can actually do this process during late fall and let it sit all the way up till springtime just like how we did with the lemongrass that we harvested last year. But you can definitely just do this a couple of weeks before you’re planning to plant lemongrass in the springtime. If you enjoy experimenting with germination timing and plant propagation, you might also appreciate advanced propagation and germination techniques used for other garden favorites like seedless watermelons.
When Lemongrass Is Ready to Plant: Root Development Timeline
Within a week or so you start noticing the lemongrass sprouting out like this and then this is what it looks like two weeks later. Within the third week, we can start planting it. And if you look at the bottom bulb here we start noticing some tiny baby roots popping out. So at this time it is okay to start planting them so it is early April and we are ready to start planting the lemongrass.
Preparing and Cleaning Lemongrass Stalks Before Planting
So for those stocks that we’ve been keeping in water since fall, we are going to give it real good clean before planting it. So any of the brown parts here just trim it off
just make sure the roots are still intact as you peel off any of the unwanted parts. And it should be clean just like this. And here we have it. So my mom and I like to divide these into groups depending on the size. Some of them are a little bit bigger than others so we like to divide it so we know how many songs goes into each Let me ask love sunlight as well as humidity. So for us since we live in zone eight B which gets a fairly good amount of sunlight as well as rain. We actually like to grow in black nursery pots and we are using seven to 10 Gallon Black nursery pots to help grow it.
How to Fill Pots and Plant Lemongrass Stalks Step by Step
Usually the bigger pots the better. So that it can actually have moved out because the pads are really big. It does use a lot of soil. So what my mom likes to do is just fill it halfway up with Sawyer from last year. So she usually just scoops soil from our garden bay from last year and just fill it up halfway and and this is the potting mix that my mom and I like to use to fill it up. Go ahead and fill up the rest of the pot with the potting mix and you want to fill it up about three quarters in and make sure to pack it really well
to the best of both
worlds is nice and packed in go ahead and give it some water
and then depending on the size of stocks, you can grow at least three to four stocks per pot. So with your fingers, go ahead and make an annotation about maybe an inch to an inch and a half in and then just place each stock into it. Make sure it’s nice and sealed in and compact into the soil. And then go ahead and finish the rest
of that job plate
day John
chose the jelly Thor the kettle the hero
Post-Planting Care: Drainage, Sunlight, and Grass Clipping Mulch
So once my mom and I finished planting the lemongrass we like to transfer it onto a bench or anywhere that would have good drainage. We don’t want to kill the grass and also we don’t want to add too much moisture so we’re keeping it here at this bench also keep it in an area that will get really good sunlight. But other than that we are going to keep this here all the way up till maybe mid October for harvesting a couple of weeks within the growing process my mom and I like to add a little bit of grass clipping on the top. So this is fresh cut grass we usually do a pretty light layer on top to help prevent any weed from growing. It also adds moisture and nutrients to the soil as well. So go in and do a light scatter on the very top and just leave the grass there for about three to four months. If you enjoy growing Asian herbs and vegetables from scratch, you might also love growing bitter melon from seed — another rewarding garden project with a similar tropical growing style.
How to Plant Lemongrass Directly in the Ground
With the store pots lemongrass and I propagated I am actually going to throw this in the ground this year to see how well they do. So it’s pretty much the same process as throwing it in a pot. Just make sure you wrote good potting mix or compost or soil and give it some really good water to hydrate it. Make a really good indentation and then go ahead and place the lemongrass about an inch to two inch in
and then cover it up with some more soil
well let this grow and see how well they’re gonna do this. year
Lemongrass Growth Progress: June Update and Watering in Heat
it’s currently June and this is what the lemongrass looks like. We’re having a pretty late summer this year. So it’s been going pretty slow. And as time goes by, we’ll start noticing some baby stocks popping out. Now
Choosing the Right Pot Size for Growing Lemongrass
lemongrass loves the heat as well as moisture so if it’s really hot, make sure to water the lemongrass at least once a day or twice a day depending on the weather. But make sure the soil is nice and hydrated but not drenched in pool of water. Fertilizer can actually be used in the earlier stage of the growing process. So if you notice that lemongrass not growing as fast as go ahead and add a little bit of fertilizer to help it grow. This year my mom only put it once and then it just continue on doing really well like this. If you enjoy growing herbs and greens from scratch, you might also love growing Malabar spinach seed to harvest — another rewarding plant that thrives in heat and humidity just like lemongrass.
Lemongrass Growth Progress: August and September Updates
Now this is early August and as you can tell the lemongrass are growing really well. And looking at the stalks you can see a lot more popping up and the leaves are grown really well. They are fairly tall and super green and lush. It’s currently September and this is what it looks like. You can tell a lot of leaves are a lot more fuller, a lot more taller and super green as well. In terms of pruning, you can go in and trim off any dead or dry leaves same goes with a stalks. Usually pruning doesn’t kill the plant unless you do too much of it. So just prune to make the plant a little bit neater and to allow other leaves and stocks to continue growing.
How Lemongrass Grown in the Ground Compares to Pots
Now going back to the ones that we grew in the ground this year. This is what they currently look like is late August and they are doing pretty well. Not as tall and not as full but it’s doing pretty well. You can tell a lot of the stocks have multiplied and have done pretty well then what I would imagine it doing I’d say the only problem is that it does take a little bit longer to grow compared to the ones in the pot just because the soil is pretty cold but it’s doing pretty well. You can tell the leaves are very pretty tall. It’s green and pretty lush as well.
In-Ground Lemongrass: September Harvest Results
And here we are it is September and the ones in the ground are ready to be harvest. You can tell it has become a lot fuller, a lot taller, and the leaves are a lot thicker as well. I didn’t notice the stocks have multiplied in volume and size. And a lot of them were actually fairly thick compared to the ones that we grew in the pot. So it actually did amazing this year.
How to Harvest Lemongrass: Step-by-Step Fall Harvest Guide
Shout to McAfee that don’t forget to please share in Thailand don’t go in here we have it it is time to harvest all the lemongrass that we grew this year. I’m actually very happy by how well they all look and how tall and beautiful and green and lush they are especially the ones that we grew in nursery pots here. But since the frost is approaching us pretty soon it is time to start harvesting.
Safety Tips: Gloves and Tools for Harvesting Lemongrass
So before we start harvesting them make sure you wear some really nice protective gloves because the actual leaves here are very sharp. They’re super thin sharp. So make sure you wear gloves to protect your fingers so that you don’t get any cuts. In a tool I’m going to be using is a pair of scissors. So with the scissors, I’m gonna cut about two inches down below where the leaves are located. So you can actually use a knife and pull off the roots but because the leaves are really tall and really full is here. I wanted to cut the leaves off first so that they are out of my way before I take care of the stock. So for the leaves, I like to remove a couple of the layers especially the ones that has some dirt in it like this
How to Trim and Clean Lemongrass Leaves After Harvesting
it should look something like this
for the ones that we trimmed off, don’t throw it away. We are going to trim off and cut off this part here and save the leaves so in the big bowl, we are going to play some leaves in and give it a really good rinse
so after we give a really good rinse out to places somewhere in the kitchen, and let it wilt overnight uncovered, because lemongrass leaves are super paper thin, sharp and very crispy. allowing this to weld overnight or make it a lot easier for us to actually bind the lemongrass because it’s more flexible and also be a lot safer for us to use.
How to Use Lemongrass Leaves: Tea, Diffusers, and Mosquito Repellent
Now the lemongrass leaves that you trimmed off to throw them away they’re actually really useful you can actually dry them or use a fresh like this. For tea you can use it in a diffuser you can actually use them to make mosquito repellent there’s so many different ways to utilize when the grass leaves so make sure you keep it and throw it away because lemongrass leaves are super paper thin sharp, the only use for its essence for its aroma so
How to Bundle and Freeze Lemongrass Leaves for Long-Term Storage
what my mom and I like to do is to bind the leaves into bundles like this. So my mom’s an expert and she will show you how she does it is pretty easy as long as you get the groove and keep practicing it.
Know if you’re scared of putting your fingers through this process? Go ahead and wear gloves. But because we’ll get this out overnight and let a weld it is actually a lot more flexible for us to use and the sharpness of the leaves have dulled down. So it’s a lot easier for us to actually use it.
And here we have this beautiful lemongrass leaf bundle. Now the more you do this, the more you’ll perfect this and it’s actually going to be very easy. Once we finish finding all of them, we’re going to place it into a Ziploc bag and then we’re going to stick in the freezer and just take it out whenever we want to use it for cooking.
Harvesting Lemongrass Stalks and Letting the Plant Regrow
And then once the leaves are nice and cut off, we have the beautiful stocks here. So the stocks here and you just leave it in the pot, they will continue to actually grow. You can tell here I left this overnight and it’s already starting to sprout out again. So if you live in a hotter region and you keep this outside throughout the whole year, it will continue to thrive and continue to grow. But we’re actually going to take out two stocks in store it because the frost is approaching pretty soon. So for the stocks we are going to use a knife to play it out
just like this
How to Rinse and Freeze Lemongrass Stalks for Cooking
we’re gonna do the same things pleasing until bowl and give it a really good rinse and get rid of in the soil that’s lemongrass
How to Cut and Use Lemongrass Stalks in Cooking
and here we have it. This is the lemongrass leaf that we bind in place in a Ziploc bag along with the lemongrass stalks here. We’re gonna place these into the freezer and then just taken out whenever we want to use it for cooking.
Using Lemongrass Leaves for Soups, Stews, and Lemongrass Ginger Tea
So a lot of you might be curious, how do you use lemongrass stalks and how do you use lemongrass leaves? So I’m going to show you how I like to cut them in what ways you can never use it. So for the leaf under here we actually only use it for its aromatic in essence. We love putting it into soups and stews or stocks I also made lemongrass ginger tea and that was amazing. If you love that lemongrass ginger combo, you might also want to harvest ginger for a lifetime right from your own garden. hubbardston is job going to start it and that’s pretty much it for the leaf bundle here. And for the stocks there’s multiple ways of actually using and slicing and cutting them. So I’m going to show you multiple ways that I like to use it.
Method 1: Bruising Lemongrass Stalks for Stir Fry Aromatics
So the first way is with a pestle, I like to just pound it and we’re just going to pound is to release the natural lemongrass oils here
and we’re going to cut this in half to make it a lot easier for us to use in cooking. So this version, I’m actually only going to use it for its aromatic as well. I like to use it in stir fry. So when I’m cooking like a chicken stir fry or pork stir fry, I’ll put it into the oil and then after it’s done cooking, just discard it and it’s done his job.
Method 2: Thinly Slicing Lemongrass on the Bias for Salads and Soups
So for the next one is to thinly slicing a bias. So the thinner you slice it, the easier it will be to actually eat it
so it should be fairly thin like this. And you can actually really slice it into rounds as well instead of cutting it on the bias just like this
in both versions can be used in stir fries. You could put it in salad dressings, you could put it in LA you can put it in soups, you could put it in a lot of different dishes actually.
Method 3: How to Mince Lemongrass for Marinades and Chili Oil
Now the most common way to use lemongrass Fox is to finally mince it. So I’m gonna use a pestle and just pound it to break up the stock
in a user relief, nice to mix it up
and just go back with your knife to make it a lot finer
just like this. Though you don’t want to use a knife go ahead and just rough cut your grass include your food processor, or blender and just make a lot finer like this. That you can also find minced up lemongrass in a lot of Asian grocery store in the frozen section as well.
Best Dishes to Cook with Lemongrass: Chicken, Pork, Fish, and More
So they’re not mince lemongrass is used for multiple different dishes. I love these in chili oil. You can use it in marinade and marinate any type of meat especially those amazing with chicken with pork with these. A lot of different poultry actually also goes great with fish as well. Other than that these are the different ways I like to cut in use the lemongrass box and we’ll use so hope you found that pretty informative.
Saving Lemongrass Stalks for Next Season’s Propagation
Other than that, don’t forget to save some stocks and make sure the stocks still has its root intact to it because these will be the ones that we’re going to save in a glass base filled with water for next season. And don’t forget to check on my website. I do have pictures as well as detailed information about pretty much growing lemongrass. So check that out if you want to learn a little bit more about it. So hope you enjoy seeing how our lemongrass grew this year. I hope this video was informative for those who wanted to learn a little bit more about lemongrass. Until then I will see you in my next video
Summary: How to Grow, Harvest, and Propagate Lemongrass Year After Year
so a lot of you might be curious, how do you use lemongrass stalks and how do you use lemongrass leaves so I’m going to show you how I like to cut them and can actually use it. So for the leaf under here we only use it for its aromatic in essence. We love putting it to soups and stews or stocks. I also made lemongrass ginger tea and that was amazing. After it’s done its job go ahead and discard it. And that’s pretty much it for the leaf bundle here. And for the stocks there’s multiple ways of actually using and slicing and cutting them. So I’m gonna show you multiple ways that I like to use it.
Bruising and Slicing Lemongrass Stalks: Quick Recap
So the first way is is with a pestle, I like to just pound it and we’re just going to pound is to release the natural lemongrass oils here
and then we’re going to cut into app to make it a lot easier for us to use in cooking. So this version, I’m actually only going to use it for its aromatic as well. I like to use it in stir fry. So when I cooking like a chicken stir fry or pork stir fry, I’ll put it into the oil. And then after it’s done cooking, just discard it and it’s done. Its job. So for the next one is to slice it on a bias. So the thinner you slice it, the easier it will be to actually eat it
so it should be fairly thin like this. That you can actually really slice it into rounds as well instead of cutting it on the bias just like this
in both these versions can be used in stir fries. You could put it in salad dressings, you could put it in LA you can put it in soups, you could put it in a lot of different dishes actually.
Mincing Lemongrass: Food Processor Method and Final Tips
Now the most common way to use lemongrass stocks is to finally mince it. So I’m gonna use a pestle and just pound it to break up those thoughts
and it use a really sharp knife to mess it up
and just go back with your knife to make it a lot finer
just like this. Though you don’t want to use a knife go ahead and just rough cut the grass inflate your food processor or blender and just make a lot finer like this.
Where to Buy Pre-Minced Lemongrass and Best Dishes to Use It In
But you can also find minced up lemongrass in a lot of Asian grocery store in the frozen section as well. So they’re not mince lemongrass is used for multiple different dishes. I love using it in Chile oil you can use it in marinade and marinate any type of meat especially those amazing with chicken with pork with these. A lot of different poultry actually also goes great with fish as well. Or they’re not these are the different ways I like to cut in use the lemongrass stalks and leaves.
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