This is my first year growing both of these. I did not know they would grow so tall. My Lemongrass is almost 4ft and my Columnar Basil is more than 2ft.
Lemongrass and Columnar Basil
I love the Columnar Basil (also called "Aussie Sweet") because it doesn't flower. Mine gets about 4 feet tall and very neat in growth.I am keeping about a dozen in small pots in hopes of overwintering it-it roots really easily and is happy in water on a sunny windowsill.
I am going to dig up both plants and put them in pots in the greenhouse.
I've had a lemongrass plant for years now. It gets very bushy when all the sword-like leaves grow & bend over. Mine needs more room than where I planted it in my herb garden. Guess I'll move it now before new growth. So, wherever you plant it, just make sure it has about 3-4 feet around it to spread💜 It smells wonderful when trimmed!
Haha, Cindy, you made me think of a term I heard here--zone envy!! In our warm Southern weather, we can grow many things in the ground. But there are a few flowers I'd LOVE to grow but, no way-fuchsias & peonies come to mind. I have tried fuchsias in ground, in pots inside & outside. They all died horrible deaths😜
Zone envy, big time! As always, I try to keep some Columnar Basil through the winter- it is always the same story---in the early fall I take a couple dozen cuttings to root- they root real well in water--a few months later I pot some up- they do well until about December, then die one by one. At the moment I have 1- struggling to survive in water. Bottom line, I will have to haunt Fred Meyers garden shop until they get the plants in- they are the only one here who sells them. This year I think I will put one in a pot and keep it there all summer, then try it as a house plant during the winter.
Yes - zone envy for sure! What species of lemon grass do you grow? I know one variety, for which seeds are available, yields wimpy, thin plants. The other - normally started from stalk pieces with the basal plate intact - produces much nicer, thicker stalks.
Basil (plain variety) is finicky for me to winter over. I generally start with cuttings in the fall, rooted in perlte, and get some decent plants for the winter but they turn woody too fast and end up not doing well.
Luckily I started saving tags at some point & have this one:
Asiatic Lemon Grass
Cymbopogon citratus
Perennial, sun, protect from frost, grows best with well-drained soil, use leaves in soups, teas, popular in Oriental cuisine.
Actually, I think the stalk is used. Not sure about leaves but whatever...
I also have a galangal in a pot, used in Thai cuisine. I haven't cooked with it yet but one year it made cute little flowers!
Maybe "asiatic" is a general term. I think the two common varieties are East Indian and West Indian but I'm not sure which is which. You can do all sorts of things with the leaves if you desire and there are all sorts of ideas on the web.
Have never grown galangal but I haven't made a lot of recipes calling for it. I have been contemplating growing turmeric though. It looks like it could be grown similarly to culinary ginger.
I just got some Turmeric rhizomes and have them in trays on a heat mat. I sure hope they will sprout- I am reading so much about it's health benefits I want to start taking it- I better get some capsules, because it takes a long time to grow to harvest, then a lot of processing to make it usable.
I started taking curcumin Life Extension brand & think it is helping with my arthritis pain. I subscribe to ConsumerLab & they test supplements. It's amazes me that so many things are adulterated with heavy metals or don't contain 100% of their listed ingredients. You can message me for more info, if you like🌈
Cindy, I am just learning- after reading a post I Googled it and found a lot of info. Seems it doesn't like temps below 65, so I will be growing it in pots. Someone said if you want a good harvest to grow it in half whiskey barrels so there will be lots of rhizomes. I bought mine on ebay and got a lot of nice fresh roots for just $10.99. I put them in trays on a heat mat about 10 days ago and I see one sprout already! When they get big enough I will pot them in bigger pots. It takes about 10 months to get a harvest.
I placed the Lemongrass and Columnar Basil in the greenhouse and they seem to be doing OK. I will have to get some turmeric rhizomes to try and grow. The arthritis is pretty bad.
One of the Doctors was on The Kitchen and was talking about the great health benefits of the turmeric roots. He advised using the actual root verse pills.
Googling Turmeric will get you an endless information- from growing, using, drying---everything about it--probably more than you want to know! It got me pretty confused- I just bought some capsules, now I read that they need black pepper & oil to be well absorbed and beneficial to the body.
Info from ConsumerLab: bioperine is the pepper extract added for enhanced absorption (& not just for curcumin), & BCM-95 provides even greater bioavailability of the curcumin. Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric that helps with not only arthritis pain but ulcerative colitis & other medical conditions. I'm unsure if eating only the root would provide the amount of curcumin to have an effect. And you'd have to consume it daily. I think it would certainly add to the good effects of a supplement though. P.S. I'm not a doctor, just a retired RN who likes to know the science before taking supplements! Janet
bariolio, your avatar is upside down! your rainbow is emptying out!
I am familiar with tumeric roots. They're easy to grow if treated as 'tropical' planting. Their tubers are smaller than ginger tubers, and their taste is yuck! They don't taste like anything your palates would yearn for. Gingers have a pleasant aroma, which tumeric lacks. In the Orients tumeric roots are used extensively for color enhence dishes, and curry powder main ingriedient is made of tumeric powder, which gives it the yellow coloring. I personally would not consume too much of anything that may have side effects to our digestive health without fully understand of their chemical make-up. Nor would I dream of eating curry paste every day.
I can't immagining myself eating curry every day either.
I will dehydrate and make my own powder. I will then make my own capsules.
That is what I plan- Kay Robbins says she is going to create a tutorial on that--
There several videos on youtube on making turmeric powder. I will be cooking it for approx 30 minutes, placing it in my dehydrator until dry and putting it in the coffee grinder to powder it.