Thanks FataMorgana, I guess you're right.
In the house she goes.

You can cut it back and overwinter it dormant with next to no light. It will grow when it gets warmth and light in the spring.

I placed mine in an unheated garage with some light and left it all winter in our southern Ohio climate.It got pretty cold and I think I did water it when it was really dry but otherwise ignored it.It lived and the next spring I divided it into seven plants.

do I need to cut the stalks down to overwinter them? I dug out a large clump and put it in a large pot and plan to overwinter it in my garage...

I just today bought a little clump about 4 ft high from a local garden shop and have set it in the spare sink by a South facing window. I plan to gradually cut it down by using the upper stalks for tea. I doubt it will get enough sun to spread out of its pot, but if it does I will just take off the extra stalks and eat them in soups.

I had grown another Lemongrass all summer and brought it in in its pot before the weather turned freezing, but it must be the other kind of Lemongrass. My new clump has the thick stalks at the base that cooks like to use. The one I grew all summer does not-- However, I think I like the flavor of that one a bit better.

Cymbopogon citratus is probably what most of us think as lemon grass. There are other Cymbogogon species such as Cymbopogon nardus that are lemony, perhaps it was one of those. Do you still have the tag for the plant you liked?

FataMorgana

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia - Cymbopogon

I still had the tag in the pot--Cymbopogon citratus.

I guess it just didn't get enough sun.

:o/

My cats have also been chewing on it, so it is a lot smaller than the new one.

Another one that I potted up at the same time didn't make it through the summer at all. I had to be away for several months, and I don't think either got watered. The dead one was in more sun.

I've got a couple of plants that I started from seed last year. I just threw them into my cold frame, and they're actually still alive (despite, what for us, has been a bitterly cold winter with night temps in the teens and twenties). Ignoring and abusing it has worked fairly well for me.

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.

I purchased three small plants this summer and put them in one pot. They grew quickly and it is now the end of summer. The leaves still look like blades of grass. In other words, I see no round stalks yet (I guess next year?). My question is, do I separate them now and then bring them inside for the winter, or, since they are still young (although tall), keep them in the pot and, come spring 2016, separate once it is warm enough to put outside? Or should I not separate them until they put out stalks?

Thanks in advance!

Donna

Lemon Grass resembles blades of grass.The stalks are thicker as you dig deeper into the bulb area--like a green onion. You probably have them too thick. If you took them out of the pot, you might see how close they are together. I would divide them now. They make nice house plants and will green-up if put in a sunny window and watered over the winter.

I had no idea - I thought they grew thick above the ground. So, in order to harvest the lemongrass to cook with, I have to dig it up? How do I know it is ready to do that? I'm sorry if I am hijacking this thread, I wasn't expecting this answer. Shows you how much I know.

I just looked at a youtube - mine looks nothing like the video. It is too close together. I will have to divide it up and wait, I guess, for next year. Thank you.

The "stalks" that you eat are at ground level. You have to pry them apart and break them off. Its like thinning a crop. Don't be shy about this because you are doing them a favor. If they grow too close together, they don't get as big.It causes them to compete for moisture and nutrients.

I would say that you snap them off rather than dig them up when you harvest the stalks. They do sound like you have them too thickly planted together. That makes it more difficult to break them off.

That's my problem. When I grow something for the first time, I just EXPECT to fail. I threw all three into a medium sized pot and just fed and watered it. It grew - nicely. I just didn't know what to expect. Then, after I purchased them, I found out I had to bring them inside in the fall. Bummer! I overwinter so many plants, I was hoping to cut back. Now I have to pot them into three containers. My fault for not reading up. Thank you again. (I might pick your brain next year before I break a stalk off.)