A lemongrass affair

Lemongrass's unique and vigorous scent fascinates me. So much so that I decided to grow it indoor so that whenever I need it to cook some Vietnamese dishes or make Thai lemongrass drink, it would be just a grab away. The grass has not responded well to my enthusiasm, sadly, but I am determined to make it grow for the third time now, and I think I am getting the hang of it.

First attempt
Google taught me that people can grow their own lemongrass out of supermarket-bought stalks. I selected some stalks still having a rather fresh root portion and plunged them into a glass of water. Within a week, new roots started coming out, followed by a couple of new shoots.

Needless to say, I was thrilled. I waited till the stalks are about three-week-old before planting them in potted soil in the apartment corridor.

Unfortunately, the corridor is very windy during day time so the fragile unkempt leaves had a hard time coping. This, in addition to the lack of direct sunlight, eventually led to the plants being dried up.


Second attempt
From my earlier attempt, I noticed that the plant's energy is spent on growing leaves out of the existing stalk instead of developing new shoots. In the second attempt, I removed the upper, usable part of a stalk and submersed only the 4-5 cm root. Three to four days later, I could see new shoots emerging from the base. An added benefit of this is that you are still able to make full use of the upper part for cooking. Other the other hand, root growth is significantly less robust than observed in the previous attempt.

Tip: Toothpicks can be used to make the short stump stand up in water.

Just as I was ready to pot it, to my dismay, the tips of the young leaves started browning. My best guess was that it was infected with fungi. The base went moldy eventually and once again, my dream of having home-grown lemongrass went down the drain. 

Third attempt

This time, I learnt to watch out for stalks with a build-up of blackish soot-like layer (fungi I suppose?) at the stalk's base and immediately separate them from the healthy ones. In addition, I decided that my shaded and windy corridor is not a good place for lemongrass and I have potted them in a brighter area in the kitchen. Let's see how it goes and in a couple of weeks, I will update you on its survival and hopefully further developments!!!