[johnny5]

Hi, Happy New Year to one and all sorry it"s a bit late just backfrom 4wks in Thailand (Koh Samui)i managed to pick up 12 lemongrass plant for about 60p well packed and looking good, I have checked on numerous so called gardening sites for growing Lemon grass in the Uk but  every site is saying something different if anyone out there has had sucess growing it please let me know.

[Totty]

We have grown it from the stuff we got from a supermarket, all we did was put it blunt end first into a jar of water and put it into the windowsill. when it filled with roots we planted them out and thats it!!

[RichardA]

I have grown it from seed and there is one over 7 foot high on my kitchen window sill right now. Seed was I think from local garden centre.
R

[fivespud364]

I have around a 100 I am trying to over winter in 1.4 litre pots at the moment and they are not liking the cold at all it will be a surprise to me that they pull through the winter If I had left them in the polytunnel any longer here they almost certainly wouldn't have but I moved them over to one of the greenhouses over the new nursery in Somerset the other week in the hope that may just save them.

[Kristen]

I have grown it from seed too. (Pretty sure it was just a packet from one of the Big Names)

[needssomehelp]

i grew mine for the supermarket, as said before stuck it in water then in a pot when roots appeared, unfortunately i forgot to bring it in from the greenhouse, its now a lovely shade of black! 

[johnny5]

thanks for all your replies will dig out an empty jar and try my luck..

[ROYAL=BD=]

We have grown it from the stuff we got from a supermarket, all we did was put it blunt end first into a jar of water and put it into the windowsill. when it filled with roots we planted them out and thats it!!

what time of year can you start them off ??

[compostqueen]

I grew some from seed last year and did actually manage to eat some of it. The stems were not as thick as shop bought but I was hoping to overwinter it and grow it on this year.  It looks a bit dead though as I put it in the unheated greenhouse.   It grew easily from seed 

[barbarella]

I've just spotted this post as  we have also just got back from a month away (S America in our case)  I started some lemongrass from seed last year and it was growing well until the autumn but I read that you had to wait until the second year to start using it.  My plants have been in the greenhouse over winter and kept frost free but they don't look very happy and I am not sure whether I have watered them too much or too little or whether it has just been too cold for them.  Obviously a lot of the perennial grasses in the garden are looking a bit worse for wear at the moment but will come back over the next few months - maybe the lemon grass will be the same?

Like you Johnny, I would like to know if anyone has grown lemongrass over two years in the greenhouse and actually had a crop from it.

[New shoot]

I've bought a growing plant a couple of years ago and started last spring with supermarket lemongrass, sprouted roots on it and then potted it up.  By autumn in both cases it was a huge plant and I did harvest some slim stalks from it, but keeping over winter is an issue.

Both years it has been too big for me to bring inside and it has died overwinter in my cold greenhouse, even if wrapped up.  I think it is only a viable crop if you can offer bright frost free conditions over winter like you would for a citrus plant 

[SG6]

Being tropical warmth is an issue but the plant will be confused by the occurance of changing day/night lengths.

In the regions that it is native the day/night is fairly constant at around 50/50 of each.

Have grown it the same way as quite a few from a supermarket offering. Being mean it was a reduced price pack of 2 that went into a jar of water to form roots.

[barbarella]

My two large citrus plants seem to be doing okay in the greenhouse (which was quite warm in December due to a faulty thermostat on the heater), as has a ginger lily which is supposed to be dormant but no-one thought to tell it   So maybe the lemon grass will recover when the spring comes.  SG6 has a point about day length though.  We shall see - I will try and remember to post what happens.

[MiklovesHerb(s)]

i'm off to the supermarket! this sound exciting!

[barbarella]

Don't want to be pessimistic, but I threw all my lemon grass plants out a few weeks ago because they definitely not showing any signs of recovery.  I might try growing some from supermarket lemon grass, but I won't bother with seed again.