That was the case with water chestnut until just a few years ago .
I did n’t lie with they were a sedge , I did n’t know that they were different from theinvasive water chestnut , and I could n’t find any planting lineage for testing in Florida .
That is , until my friends at the USDA hooked me up with a few to prove out this last winter . I planted them in jars of mud on my windowsill until the weather warmed up alfresco , then snagged an honest-to-goodness bathtub from a family phallus , put in some potting dirt , and planted one in it .
Here ’s what I started with :
And here ’s what I had a calendar month or two later :
And by July :
These plant arise like mad . When the folio begin dying back and I set out pulling them up a few weeks ago , I come up I had piles of water chestnut tree for eating and planting .
NOTE : How I grew them this last twelvemonth was not quite right . First off , I total too much water to the bath and not enough dirt in the bottom . I got a lot of small and squashed corms from this method acting . Next year , I ’m growing them in these bad boy :
Yep . Those are old hot tubs behind my nursery . I in reality have three now , all of which will be growing solid food for me this next spring .
Until then , however , I ’m keep some water supply chestnut growing in the greenhouse . Here ’s how to rise water system chestnuts :
Step 1: Find something that holds water.
Step 2: Put some good dirt in it.
Step 3: Plant a water chestnut a few inches deep.
Step 4: Add water until it’s over the soil line.
Growing pee chestnuts is altogether easy . Just look – within a few day , that chestnut tree will pop up . They get like unhinged , as bring up previously , and the “ dotty ” will be all over the place beneath the sludge in about 6 - 7 months .
Alternately , you may turn H2O chestnuts in kiddie pools or muddy area . For low-pitched - work yield , they ’re hard to beat . They ’re evenpretty safe nutritionally . Plus … the spirit is brilliant . Nothing at all like the canned or frozen blah you get with Formosan takeout food .
The only downside I ’ve found on Taiwanese water chestnuts is that they ’re a pain to process . Peeling the corms takes sentence !
UPDATE : Check out this rare video of a Yanomami Indian grow water chestnuts in the Amazon :
SPUDOMETER RATING :
4 Spuds
Name : Water chestnut , Chinese water chestnutsLatin Name : Eleocharis dulcisType : Perennial water sedgeSize : Around 2 - 5′ tallNitrogen Fixer : NoMedicinal : NoCold - hardy : NoExposure : Full sunPart Used : CormsPropagation : Corms , divisionTaste : ExcellentMethod of grooming : Raw , cooked , pickledStorability : Decent . Keep in cold-blooded moist Baroness Dudevant or can them . relaxation of growing : EasyNutrition : GoodRecognizability : LowAvailability : low-spirited
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