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Sipping a cup of Lemon grass tea is not just soothing, but also offers amazing health benefits. In Today’s post let us look into some very useful tips and tricks to quickly grow lots of lemon grass herb at home.
Introduction
Lemon grass also known as citronella grass is a wonderful herb that adds a pleasant and appetizing citrus flavour to in your soups, stir-fries, and teas. It grows into a lovely arching grass clump that looks really beautiful in your garden.
Lemongrass has anti-inflammatory and anti-septic properties and has loads of health benefits including protection from heart attacks by lowering your bad cholesterol and fats. We will not be discussing the health benefits of lemon grass in this post. One more point to mention is, it’s a mosquito repellent plant that drives away mosquitoes and other harmful insects but luckily it attracts beneficial insects and pollinators like honey bees and butterflies.
Now, let’s quickly look into some useful tips and tricks to grow and propagate or multiply lemongrass starting from a small piece or a small plant and grow it quickly into a large plant.
Sunlight and Location
Many people try to grow lemongrass in shade, this will not work. Plants growing in shade will be sparse and may attract pests. Lemongrass plant likes a lot of heat and light and grows well in warm and humid conditions. So, grow it in a location that receives a maximum amount of direct sunlight, at least 6 hours a day. However, in the hot summer season or to protect it from the noon sun, you can optionally install a green shade net that filters light up to 50%.
Container Selection
This is very important. Do not try to grow lemongrass in small containers. Choose a wide and deep container. The wider container allows it to self-propagate and it spreads like a grass clump. Also, it gets root bound quickly and this is another reason to choose a large and wide container.
Potting Soil
Lemongrass grows quickly and spreads rapidly if you use well-draining soil rich in compost like cow dung or horse dung or any compost like vermicompost or leaf compost. To make a well-draining soil mix, you can mix stuff like cocopeat or peat moss about 30-40%, garden soil 30-40%, and 30-40% compost like cow dung.
Watering
This is another important factor in successfully growing lemongrass. Lemongrass loves moist soil for the best growth, but not soggy soil with water stagnation as this can result in root rot and death. So, make sure you have proper drainage holes in your container. Daily watering is the general rule, otherwise, you may get leaf drying and browning or burning from tips and edges. In very hot summers, misting the plant with water also helps. Also, mulching it with some leaves or twigs will help conserve soil moisture, especially in hot summers.
Fertilizer
Lemongrass is a grassy plant with green leaves and hence needs a nitrogen-rich fertilizer for the best growth of its foliage. A one or two handful of compost like decomposed cow dung or vermicompost once a week or two is sufficient for its optimal growth. Please do not use any chemical fertilizers for edible gardening.
Pruning
Regular removal of dead and dried-up leaves will help in not only keeping it neat and tidy but also promotes better growth and air circulation. Apart from daily snipping some leaves for your tea or soup, you can snip the leaves once in a while like giving it an annual haircut. You can do hard pruning in winter like about 6 inches above the level of the soil.
Pest Control
Lemongrass is itself a pest-repelling plant which repels many pests and insects like mosquitoes but fortunately attracts beneficial insects and pollinators like honey bees and butterflies. Also, as I said earlier, plants growing in shade will be sparse and may attract pests. In that case, you can spray neem oil to control pests and then keep it in full sun.
Propagation
There are many ways to propagate lemongrass plants. One is from seeds and the other method is from bulbs. Lemongrass grows in clumps that make it very easy to propagate by dividing. Each leaf fan will be attached to a narrow bulb-like base with roots attached, and each one of these has the potential to become a new clump. It’s up to you how large you want each division to be. Replanting a division with at least five or six bulbs will look more substantial than a single bulb.
Please Watch this video on How to Grow Lemon grass quickly below:
