My lemongrass plant is now older than a year. Wonderful fragrance, nice to look at and pretty useful in the kitchen. One favorite way to enjoy it is as a tea.

I was going to say that I wish that I lived where lemongrass would be a perennial, but on second thought, I really don't. Lemongrass loves heat, but I hate it!

I think that I will skip the lemongrass this season, as I normally have to go to the Asian market, right about this time, to get some (as well as a few Asian herbs, which I root in my cloner), and I just trim them, leaving that hard root core, then put it in a pyrex cup of water, and they root in about 3 weeks, changing the water frequently. I have so much lemongrass in the freezer that I could skip a couple of years. I trim it, as I would to use in recipes, and Foodsaver it, in small 3 or 4 packs, and the rest in larger packs. It keeps for years this way.

I have plenty of lemongrass seeds if anyone is interested. Does not tolerate frost. Loves heat and humid climates. Great for tea and also I also grow it in containers between my tomatoes because it repels whiteflies.

I did nothing special to protect my plant over our winter other than one night, I covered it with freeze cloth. We had 5-6 nights over the winter that got into the low 30s, and maybe to 29-30 degrees. Top of the leaves got nipped a bit by frost on a couple of occasions, but it’s not as delicate as some other tropical types.

I have not grown lemongrass for years. I took a class In Thai cooking and got a plant. It grew very well here. Now I want to grow it again!

I was going to skip it this year because I don’t use a lot of it as it takes so long to get big and then it is fall. But I never thought about freezing it! Do you freeze just the trimmed leaves or also include part of the bulb? Maybe I will get another plant and harvest the leaves before frost to freeze. Great tip!

I trim the lemongrass as if I was getting ready to use it - cut off the root core, until I see the purple rings, pull off the toughest outer leaves, and cut it to about 6" long. This way, when I pull it out of the freezer, no more trimming is needed, just cutting.

For freezing, I make these narrow strips for the Foodsaver, by taking the 8" rolls and cut it into about 2" wide strips, crosswise, then seal the long sides. Then I cut one of the short seals off, and that's the end I put 2, 3, or 4 stalks in through, then Foodsaver it! I put all of those in a gallon ziploc, and freeze them, and they are ready just as I need them, in the various amounts I need. I have a lot more than I need every time, and the excess (usually the smaller ones) I Foodsaver in larger amounts. I still have a few of the smaller amounts in there, but when I need more, I'll cut open one of the 3 bags with 25 or 30 in them on one of the corners, and transfer some into a ziploc, and use it out of that, though they don't keep as well that way. Then I re-seal the Foodsaver bag on the corner, and when I need some next time, cut one of the other corners!

Another thing that I Foodsaver is the dark green leaves (as with the regular stalks, this keeps forever when vacuum sealed) - these are actually useful, in that you can make lemongrassaide, by blending some with water and sugar, or other sweetener, and strain it, and serve over ice. Probably some alcoholic drinks they make with it, in SE Asia.

Lemongrassade sounds wonderful. All the goodness of lemon without the sourness of lemon.

Nan6b wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 9:15 am Lemongrassade sounds wonderful. All the goodness of lemon without the sourness of lemon.

Sounds so refreshing! With lemon cookies... the ones that have the powdered sugar on top!

Karstopography, I just noticed the Spanish moss in your first post.

It's everywhere in southeast Texas, right?

Yes, bumper crop of Spanish Moss here near Lake Jackson. Leaded gasoline way back when about wiped it out, but it has recovered nicely. There’s also a goodly amount in my compost bins. For a while, I used fallen clumps it to tie up tomatoes and it works, but I worried about how secure it might be. Bats love to roost in it, my wife picks up wind fallen piles of it, the other day a bat flew out. Not the first time. Cows love to eat it. My buddy the rancher used to feed it to his herd in the winter.

Oddly, ball moss is taking over in some of the areas with Spanish moss. I have a bit of ball moss near the power line feeding my house. Ball moss is ugly and trees seem to decline once it takes over.

There's lots of it Spanish moss where I live too. I'm very near the water.

Looks like I need to investigate getting a Foodsaver since I found a really strong Lemongrass plant at a local garden center. Still too cold to plant but is a nice size for a 4" pot!! Any recommendations for a small one as I don't plant to use it a lot.

@Gardadore Depending on the type of lemongrass that is, it may be enough for you, by the end of the season. If it's the type grown from seed, which most sold like that are, maybe not, as those stalks don't get very large. The kind that are only grown from rooted stalks get very large, by the end of the season. One year, with 4 plants in the ground, one of them had 86 stalks in the 6" cluster when I pulled it! Not all full sized, but that was incredible. The ones I grew from seed (only once) only got about 3" clusters, with very small stalks (I used 3-4, for each stalk called for in a recipe). You would need a 4-5 gal pot for each of the larger kind, as they get a good sized root ball on them, by the end of the season (early May to late Oct. here).

This year I started my lemongrass stalks in some water on 4-14 - I remember I bought it the day before, because I had an appt. that day right up the street, from the Korean market, where I bought it! Now, just a little over 3 months later, here's the 4 plants (actually 3 - one is out of the photo). Those sage and rosemary plants behind are quite large, but these are already dwarfing those, and still have over 3 months, before I have to dig them up!
Lemongrass, in front of some large sage and rosemary plants. 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Spanish moss and ball moss are not a moss.
They are related to the pineapple.
Yep a pineapple.

Here's that lemongrass just a couple of weeks later, showing how much more it has grown.
Lemongrass, 8-9, almost 3 months from harvest. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Today, I finally harvested all of my lemongrass - got 95 stalks, and only a very few small ones! I was surprised, for sure, as in the past it seemed that half the mass was small stalks, but you can see how few there were, even on the smallest clusters.

As I've done before, I trim these now, so when I thaw them, nothing is thrown away - it's already been done! Well, not really - all those trimmings (other than those greens I saved) are in the garden, as mulch! I took photos showing the woody centers in the stalks, and the first one trimmed to the purple rings in the center. Some I only had to cut a small amount from, while the ones in the center (the oldest stalks) I sometimes had to cut up to 3" from. Good thing is, I won't need to do this again for quite a while! I still have a few from 4 seasons ago, from 3 stalks - I couldn't find anyone that wanted my 4th rooting, so I planted it!
All 4 lemongrass clusters, showing the size difference. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the largest cluster, with the stalks cut through, with a cleaver, showing the outer ones already with the purple rings in the centers, but most needed some trimming.
Largest cluster, stalks cut off, showing the woody center of most of the the stalks, which will need to be cut off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The smallest cluster still had few small stalks, and had more of the ones that didn't need trimming at that end.
Smallest cluster, still with few small stalks. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I didn't save all of the greens - only half. These will be cut more, then Foodsavered, and the volume will decrease greatly.
Lemongrass greens, from 2 largest clusters, about 46 oz., filled a plastic bag from a store. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And the 95 stalks I got from the 4 clusters:
95 stalks saved, and rinsed, draining, before vacuum sealing them, in the Foodsaver. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's that lemongrass 5 days before I harvested it. And a photo of the huge sage and rosemary plants, that didn't look like much, behind the lemongrass.
4 lemongrass clusters, next to a large sage and rosemary plants. Ready to be harvested soon, 10-25 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sage, 4 ft across, and rosemary, almost 4 ft tall, that were dwarfed by that lemongrass! 10-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here in Florida we use a edible lemon grass,West Indies.you can slice those thicker stalks real thin,eat raw or put into salads,soups.