Growing Lemon Grass in containers or garden

Lemon Grass is an essential ingredient in Thai cuisine (curry etc) and of course lemon grass tea. The question is can you grow your own in the UK. The tender white stalks are used for cooking, (you can freeze these) the rest can be used for lemon grass tea. Great with fish and chicken dishes.

Propagating Lemon Grass

You can buy lemon grass plants from herb nurseries, and you can also try to strike it yourself from 'some' types that you buy from markets. Look for a bunch that has a good 'bulb' at the bottom and maybe a few roots as well, suspend the bulb so the very bottom is touching the water and then wait until it sends out new roots. Change the water every 2nd day. Once the roots start to form and reach 2 -3 inches you can plant it in a pot or container, be careful at this stage as the roots will be fairly fragile. Or you can just buy some young plants from a herb specialist (thats what we do). As for growing from seed, propably not worth the effort unless you want a lot of lemon grass.

Growing Lemongrass

Another herb that grows well in a humus rich moist soil in full sun. However you can grow it indoors on a sunny windowsill. We strongly suggest that you keep it in a pot or container as it can tend to run a little and 'take over'. So you have it growing (in a pot) and you want to know how to keep it happy, moisture is the key, but not waterlogged, light and sun is esential, and a warm spot away from frosts and the cold. If you grow it it pots, you can overwunter it on a protected patio or indoors. As for fertilizer, an all round slow release fertilizer will do the job, but as always we use a seaweed fertilizer especially when young, it just seens to get lemon grass growing well.