How to Grow Lemongrass USA
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Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) — Clump-forming, tender perennial grass.
Unlike an annual crop, the work here is front-loaded into establishment: get the planting and the site right and the same plants crop for several seasons.
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus)
2 sources cited · Verified
Growth Stages
Quick Facts
At a Glance
Harvest & Storage
Diseases
Pests
Plan your Lemongrass planting
When to sow and plant Lemongrass depends on your own frost dates. Check the USA vegetable planting calendar. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.
Growing Lemongrass in another region
Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.
Sources
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Soil: well-drained, moist, rich loam, high organic content; work fertilizer into top 6in, no more than 1in well-composted organic matter per 100 sq ft. Light: full sun. Climate: warm, humid; tender perennial, grown as annual in cooler Utah areas. Spacing: 3ft apart, plants reach 3-6ft tall and 3ft wide. Planting: after danger of frost has passed, or grow in containers indoors. Propagation: division of clumps or nursery starts, rarely from seed; for overwintering, save a 6in section of the bulbous shoot base with roots. Watering/feeding: regular watering and misting, hand-water or flood irrigation (avoid sprinklers); fertilize weekly at half strength June-September (container), monthly for ground plants. Harvest: end of growing season just before first fall frost, or once stalks reach 1/2in thick; cut at ground level or twist and pull off; freezes up to 6 months. Pests/diseases: spider mites (mainly indoor problem, treat with insecticidal soap); leaf blight (reddish-brown spots); little leaf/grassy shoot (stunted growth); generally free of pests and diseases when grown correctly.
These source is specific to this region. The full list of 2 sources behind this guide (Royal Horticultural Society, Utah State University Extension) is in the references of our UK guide to lemongrass; they describe the plant itself, which is the same wherever it grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What problems affect lemongrass?
Our data links 3 diseases and 2 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
Almost everything on this page resolves to your own frost dates rather than the calendar — the last spring frost moves by roughly two months between zone 3 and zone 10. The USA Garden Planner works from your zone so the timing is already decided before the season starts.
Get the USA Garden Planner →Instant PDF download · Written for US growing conditions
How this guide is put together
The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against USDA hardiness-zone and frost-date data, with Cooperative Extension sources cited directly where one exists for a crop. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.
Last verified 2026-09-04
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Growing advice for your part of the USA
Timing and conditions change a lot inside one country. These guides cover frost dates and growing seasons region by region.
Where To Go From Here
Take this crop from reading into a written plan for your own beds.
Keep going
Plan the next step
Use the printable SoilCommander planner for your region to turn this guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and weekly garden tasks.