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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

How to grow Lemon Grass to Cook with.

Is anyone growing lemon grass to cook with? Vietnam food & Curry food both have lemon grass. I have seen lemon grass at the garden store but never paid much attention to it. Is there more than 1 variety? What is the best way to grow it? What weather & soil does it like? Cooking show made some very good foods I have several recipes I want to try. Cooking show says lemon grass adds good flavor but no info about what that flavor is, is it Lemon flavor? Slice 1/2 cup thin like a green onion cook it in the food. Will lemon grass come up again every year?

pepperhead212
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There is a seed version of lemongrass that is very slow growing, and by fall, it was only 3/16" to 1/4" in diameter. The way I make the other is to buy a bunch at a store, around April 15, cut the very bottom off, and put in a cup of water, and in a little over 3 weeks there are roots on most of them. Those get rooted in loosened soil, and start growing. By the fall, they grow into large plants, with up to 85 stalks - the most I ever saw on one plant. Most had around 65 stalks. I would harvest them and clean the roots off, and about 6" of the light stalk, and foodsaver them, and they last several years that way in the freezer. The green parts of the stalks can be used, too, and foodsaver well.

Unfortunately, it won't come up again, unless you are in HI, or the southern part of FL, but I start it every few years, to restock my freezer. It only takes 3 plants for me, for about 3 years of stalks.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Lemon grass is a perennial. It grows in a clump. In frost free climates in can be grown in a pot or in the ground. It does like well drained soil. It rarely blooms. If it blooms, it usually means it is being stressed.

You can grow lemon grass from divisions. If the market has fresh ones and the bottom of the stem is not cut off, it can be rooted rooted. Clumps have to be divided every few years or the center dies out. It does fairly well in a pot. It won't get big, but it will produce usable roots. You will have to bring it inside during winter.

Uses. Lemon grass tea, used in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Filipinos will use lemon grass for medicine and it is often used as one the herbs in the cavity of a roasted pig (lechon). You can use a whole stalk with the base crushed and part of the leaves to stuff the cavity of a chicken before roasting. It takes away the poultry smell. Commercially lemon grass extract are used for lemon flavoring of candies. The citronella plant (real one), is related to lemon grass. If you rub the lemon grass juice on your arms, it does keep bugs away for a little while.

Usually the base of the lemon grass stalk is crushed and used as a seasoning in soups, and to season roasts, It is ground with other herbs to make herb pastes, like Thai curry paste. It is a common ingredient in Thai, and Vietnamese cuisine. You can make lemon grass tea. It has medicinal uses as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3I9RnqualI

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/ ... ss-gallery

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/herb ... -grass.cfm

Lechon made in Europe. It is in English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc7yBcR ... PitmasterX

Lechon made traditionally in P.I. He collects lemon grass at around 7:27 in the video. It sounds like Cebuan. It does not sound like Tagalog. In the Philippines lemon grass is called tanglad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0d_TmA ... l=Kafarmer

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TomatoNut95
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Baker Creek sent me some free lemon basil seed and I don't know what to do with it.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

pepperhead212 wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:13 am
There is a seed version of lemongrass that is very slow growing, and by fall, it was only 3/16" to 1/4" in diameter. The way I make the other is to buy a bunch at a store, around April 15, cut the very bottom off, and put in a cup of water, and in a little over 3 weeks there are roots on most of them. Those get rooted in loosened soil, and start growing. By the fall, they grow into large plants, with up to 85 stalks - the most I ever saw on one plant. Most had around 65 stalks. I would harvest them and clean the roots off, and about 6" of the light stalk, and foodsaver them, and they last several years that way in the freezer. The green parts of the stalks can be used, too, and foodsaver well.

Unfortunately, it won't come up again, unless you are in HI, or the southern part of FL, but I start it every few years, to restock my freezer. It only takes 3 plants for me, for about 3 years of stalks.
I grow them from store-bought as well — some store ones are cut too high with no rootable bottom, or sometimes they are too dried out. So you do have to find a good source ... or maybe good availability is seasonal as pepperhead212 implied?

In the past, I overwintered them in the house — upstairs and nearly dry with occasional flooding — they would stay lush for a while, die down over the winter months, then came back up in spring. I gave up on growing them for a while because our 2 kitties discovered the pot and started jumping the gated doorway into what was supposed to be no-cat-zone room. And I had to un-train them so they wouldn’t think it was an accessible room any more.

Anything remotely resembling grass is irresistible fair game to cats — I got rid of spiderplants — a houseplant I had grown for YEARS — for the same reason (last and final attempt that MADE UP MY MIND was to stand on an aquarium glass lid and rim on hind feet to swipe at hanging pot spider plant plantlets in attempt to GRAB with claws until succeeded in knocking the entire plant off It’s hook AND slipping one hind paw off the rim in the process and splashing into the aquarium.... :roll:). Now, I mostly have to keep them away from my overwintering peppers Which they have decided is good regurgitating green.... :x

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

...so a little off topic but....

Lemon basil is easy to grow from seeds — same as any other basil but the leaves are smaller than the typical Sweet/culinary/grocery store basil. They are great for any lemony accent — fish, chicken, etc., soup garnish, and also good for lemony herbal tea.

In the garden, they are vulnerable to armyworms and some other moth caterpillars*, and particularly in my garden to fourlined plant bugs.

*
applestar wrote:
Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:39 pm
If those caterpillars are same as the ones I get on my basil, they will get fuzzier/hairier and are likely to be
:arrow: Species Spilosoma virginica - Virginian Tiger Moth -

White hairy caterpillar - Spilosoma virginica - BugGuide.Net
https://bugguide.net/node/view/220119

Hodges#8137 - BugGuide.Net
https://bugguide.net/node/view/498

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Interesting. Most cats hate anything that smells like lemon. My cats are indoors and the plants are outdoors, so the two don't mix.

Lemon basil is a little more resistant to downy mildew than sweet basil. it will live a little longer. It is good in dishes where you are using a citrus flavor anyway. I live in a bug's paradise, but I don't really have too much trouble with aphids or caterpillars on basil. Spittle bugs and white flies are another story. I do chase any butterflies away that I do see.



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