Lemongrass is a type of herbal plant that grows wild in forest areas on the slopes of mountains in tropical climates. As one of the herbs, there are tons of its uses and benefits. For example, once you plant or cultivate it, you can get culinary, medicinal, even beauty and aromatic benefits. Taking care of it usually only include watering and pruning lemongrass plant. So, that would be a good call to have it at your garden.
Moreover, although it usually grows wild in the forest, it’s also possible to plant and cultivate at home. Besides, there are some simple ways on how to harvest lemongrass by yourself at home. Though, before you harvest it, you might as well need to know about pruning this plant. Thus, this article will show you some steps you need to do in pruning lemongrass.
Things To Know Before Pruning Lemongrass Plant
Before we proceed on pruning lemongrass plant, it’s quite necessary to know a thing or two about lemongrass cultivation first. As we know that, you can now plant lemongrass anywhere such as; in pots, sacks, polybag containers, and can also in open field such as in rice field, even your backyards. Remember, the growth of lemongrass depends on several factors, like soil fertility, climate, and height above sea level.
For optimal leaf growth, a dry and humid climate is very important since lemongrass is a tropical climate native. However, during the cold season, the leaf growth might be dormant. In this case, it might look like it’s going to dry out, but it’s actually its adaptation to cold weather. Thus, while it’s dormant and the tops of it dried-off, that’s the right time to prune it.
How to Prune Lemongrass Plant
Pruning lemongrass plant is a way to take care of the plant, also to keep them more in shape. As we know, it can grow wild if you just leave it to grow naturally—because it’s a wild herb plant. In this case, it can be quite a necessary thing to do since it grows really quick. The right time to prune lemongrass is in early spring, while it’s still dormant. Here are some steps on pruning lemongrass:
- The first thing you need to do is remove some unattached dead materials on the lemongrass plant. Those dead materials might include some dead stalks. In this case, you can take them away or pull them out to separate them with the healthy-green lemongrass.
- After you get rid of them, trim the dried-off tops of the stalks. You can cut them with hedge shears instead of clippers to make it easier to manage the shagginess.
- You can cut the brown top leaves of lemongrass up to 30 centimeters—or more. Don’t worry if you think you’ve cut them too short because they can grow back drastically.
- To keep the size and more manageable, it’s necessary to prune them regularly.
Now you know what to do on pruning lemongrass plant. You might cut some of them to use for culinary, medicinal, and aromatic benefits. That’s help the lemongrass somehow in check—for its shape. But, they grow quite rapidly so they might need extra pruning. Also, it can be quite important to encourage new growth.