A couple of years ago at an herb fair, I purchased a 4" pot filled with a bunch of very small (6" or so) lemon grass seedlings--way more than I needed or that could remain together happily. I carefully knocked them out of the pot & planted them individually into transplant-sized cell packs I had, using a potting mix I make myself. After a month or so in these, and once the weather was favorably settled, I gave away all but 4. Two went in the garden, two into 4" pots as backups. They did not grow much over summer, constricted as they were, but they lived OK, and I trimmed back the leaves periodically. Come fall, I brought them indoors and put them under lights in the basement with some other herbs and continued to trim as needed. These I transplanted out to the garden last spring & they thrived. Then last fall I decided to experiment a bit. I do not have a lot of room to overwinter a pot large enough for a whole clump, so what I did in the early fall was to dig down & detach 2-3 crowns from the perimeter of the clump, pieces with some root attached, cut those stems back to about 4-6" and planted these in 3-4" pots filled with some sterile potting medium with a very little worm compost. I watered them enough to settle them in, and put the pots in my SE-facing bay window (screens removed from the window for the winter for more light) and now keep them just barely moist. They produce just enough growth to show they are alive and should keep going until the warm weather arrives so I may safely put them out in open ground again for the summer.

You can tie them into a bundle (perhaps with some rosemary sprigs) and add them to a bath - very good for the muscles if you've been digging ditches or running marathons all day. For cooking, it's usually the white part that is used, not the green leaves, although they will give a pleasant flavour, and add some colour to a dish. Why not chop some up (whites and green, or either) and freeze it - much better than drying. You could also add bundles of the leaves to your final rinse water in the laundry, or make a tea of them and use it to wipe over kitchen and bathroom surfaces for a lovely fresh lemon-y aroma that could well be a deterrent for assorted insects.

Lots of bulb-type plants grow corms. The one that I get the most use out of is elephant garlic. The corms take a couple/few years to make a full elephant bulb, but you will get an edible "round" after one year in the ground. I harvest the elephant garlic (not a true garlic) in the summer and replant corms in the fall after an hour soak in water. Walking onions have bulbils at the top of the stems and propagate like mad. Hardneck variety garlics grow bulbils that can be replanted as well. Of course I always miss a head or two and the whole garlic sprouts in the bed. Archaeologists think that wheat varieties that we cultivate may have been selected for by how easily the seed is removed from the plant during transport home (accidentally, not on purpose). Similar effect I suppose.

Originally posted this in "Asian Gardening" section but re-posting it here Hi, I have a curry leaf plant that I got last year; it had two stems coming out of the soil when I got it. Through summer last year, it became a decent sized plant with both stems growing a number of shoots. At the start of spring this year, I pruned the curry leaf plant by topping both the stems off (this was mid-March) since I wanted the plant to grow new and more shoots. Since then, the plant sent off two new shoots off of the two topped off stems, and I can see several new leaves on the plant. The question I have now is, whether I should top off the new stems as well or just let the plant grow. If topping off will result in more new shoots and the plant growing more vigorously and bushier, I'd like to do that. I've read at some places that the more you prune/harvest, the more the plant will grow, but just wanted to be sure that I won't be damaging the plant by pruning too much. Please see the pics of my plant in its current state (one shows the whole plant and the other is a close-up to show where I topped.)