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Question re: Planting Lemongrass/Citronella

9 years ago

Hi All,

I was fortunate enough to get some lemongrass and citronella. After I was given them, I noticed the roots looked different.
With that said, I had a few questions:

1. With the lemongrass (first pic), will the non-cocoon looking roots survive the replant? If so, should I plant them up to where my finger is?

2. Same question, but with the Citronela.

3. I will plant the lemongrass and citronela in different areas of the garden, but should I plant each bush/individual root system very close to each other or should I space it out? If I space it out, will it still grow bushy?

Thanks in advance, new to this world!

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Regards,
Stephen

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Comments (3)

Pyewacket
9 years ago
I bought my lemongrass at an Asian market out of the produce section. I stripped off any dead looking leaves. I did NOT cut off the top but should have because new stems will grow up between the old leaves. That works better if you cut off the top part so they have an easier time emerging. My lemongrass was totally rootless and had been in cold storage when I bought it.

After a couple of weeks in a glass of water in the window, I saw no progress, root-wise. I meant to throw it out but didn't get around to it for another couple of weeks. I HAD refilled the glass with water though, so there was still some water in the glass when I got around to finally getting rid of it, only to discover that it had rooted after all. It had a bunch of roots at that point, about an inch to 2" long.

I planted it and it is doing fine.

I don't know if there are enough roots on the plants you have to root well going straight into a pot. My thinking is that this is a grass, grasses are tough, and giving it a shot to just directly plant those is probably not unwarranted. You might take a couple of stems that have the fewest roots and stick them in a glass of water to hedge your bets.

I don't know if you SHOULD plant them that deep, but I know I did NOT plant mine that deep. I planted about half or less that deep.

You should probably cut off all the upper portion down to about 4" to 6". Ultimately, new shoots will seek their own depth as the plant spreads. I would pull off the black dead leaves though.
salevene
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the input. I ended up planting a slightly less deep and after a week a few are already starting to grow new blades. I'm guessing the other ones need some time to focus on root growth.

Still not sure why some have the cocoon looking root stems and some don't... Any ideas?
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salevene
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the input. I ended up planting a slightly less deep and after a week a few are already starting to grow new blades. I'm guessing the other ones need some time to focus on root growth.

Still not sure why some have the cocoon looking root stems and some don't... Any ideas?

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