Description
Supplied as a bare root plant
Description:
Water Chestnuts are a perennial aquatic plant native to Oceania, including Northern Australia as well as parts of Africa an Asia. In Australia, Water Chestnuts are an important crop for indigenous people as well as a food source for wildlife.
They are cultivated for their edible corms, which are sweet and crunchy but must be cooked before eating. In the garden, they are ideal for a pond or for their own dedicated container, as well as being excellent for hydroponic setups. During the cooler months, the vegetative part of the plant dies down and corms are produced. Water chestnuts corms can be harvested once the leaves have died back, and once peeled are prized for their mild, sweet flavour and incredibly crunchy texture. One plant will yield many corms and the plant propagates vegetatively through it’s leaf tips, spreading rapidly.
For more information on this plant, see the Atlas of Living Australia or it’s Wikipedia page.
For another great container plant, try kang kang / water spinach.
For other sweet, perennial root vegetables, try Jerusalem Artichokes or sweet potato slips.
Care:
Water Chestnuts do well in full sun or part shade. They have the potential to become invasive in wetland areas so cultivate responsibly. Water chestnuts do very well in a nutrient dense media so if cultivating as a food source, a flooded pot filled with well – rotted compost will provide far greater yields than an ornamental pond. Plant with a spacing of at least 30cm for good – sized corms.
