The Benefits of Growing a Lemongrass Plant
As the name suggests, lemongrass is in fact a grass with thin long leaves that has the nice aroma of fresh lemons. This plant is adorned and loved amongst horticulture and garden enthusiasts for it’s wide variety of uses.
From being a great medicinal herb, culinary treat, as well as being an easy to maintain ornamental, lemongrass is definitely what we would call a multipurpose plant.
Used as a medicinal herb, the oils from the lemongrass plant are packed with vitamins a,b,c, magnesium, iron, and all sorts of essential nutrients. Herbal lemongrass teas are found to be extremely soothing to drink and can be a great detoxing and diuretic agent.
This plant is also popular in the culinary field and is even sometimes referred to as the “thai lemongrass plant” for being so popular amongst thai curries, soups, and all sorts of other Asian dishes which is why it can also be commonly found in Asian grocery markets.
The lemongrass plant also provides numerous benefits as an ornamental in the garden. Not only will it bring that fresh lemon scent to your borders but it can also serve as a natural mulch that can protect your fruit and vegetable plants when planted around them. This plant really does it all!
If you are considering growing your own lemongrass or already doing so, allow us to give some guidelines and tips to ensure it’s healthiest growth so it can provide you with great health as well.
Growing Lemongrass and Lemongrass Plant Care
Lemongrass can be planted either from seeds or bare roots that can be found typically at Asian grocery markets. If you’re starting them from bare roots, you can simply place them in a cup of water in front of a window and allow them to sprout some roots which usually takes a couple of weeks or up to a month and a half. After they’ve rooted you can move them and plant them in soil that has been mixed well with organic matter.
Adding some liquid fertilizer after planting them is an option but good quality potting mix is a must. Also, due to their tropical nature, cold weather can be harmful to your lemongrass especially in it’s early stages so bring them indoors whenever the temperature drops below 50 degrees.
When your plant has grown large enough, it will start to bloom flowers at the top which will turn into a brownish red color that you can harvest for seeds. If you decide to harvest the lemongrass plant for consumption or herbal use, simply clean them of dirt after removing them from the soil and freeze them inside a container like a Ziploc bag to keep them fresh.
Also be sure to wear protective gloves when dividing and working with lemongrass as their leaves can give off some sharp papercuts, ouch! Click here to check out the best selling gardening gloves!
You may find that your foliage may start rusting and producing light yellow or brown marks. This is caused by fungus and can be treated with some fertilizer and by pruning out the damaged leaves. As for pests, you won’t need to worry much due to lemongrass oil being a natural pesticide that repels whiteflies and bugs of that nature.
We hope you found use in this article to help you make the best use of this beautiful ornamental grass. Feel free to comment below with feedback or any other gardening questions you may have. We love hearing from and responding to fellow gardeners and plant enthusiasts!