Anyone growing the Asian water chestnut? I very much enjoy them and was thinking about getting some next year. I heard you could grow them in 5 gallon buckets and in mucky stagnant water.
Wondered if anyone had any experience growing them.
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I believe Mark, a youtuber… channel “Self Sufficient Me” grew them and had a pretty comprehensive video. If I recall correctly he did grow them in tubs. He lives in a pretty warm climate in Australia. It was an interesting process.
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I’ll check it out thanks! Self Sufficent Me’s climate looks very similar to mine. Love his stuff.
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I checked it out. They need a long season to grow nice sized tubers, but they are usually a perennial in my climate (which is basically the same as his). Looks like you just grow them in some fertile soil/mud in stagnant water. From some researching, it seems they don’t like flowing water all that much, so I won’t hook them up to my aquaponics system.
Now the real hard part, finding a source that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Apperently they are big in the freshwater aquarium/pond scene, so they cost alot for a plant you need a bunch of. Probably give my extension office (both the ag and aquaculture guys) a call to see if they know a place I can source.
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Do you have an Asian supermarket near you? Sometimes you can find fresh water chestnuts for sale. Fresh tubers will grow when planted. The trick is storing them over the winter without them rotting.
I grew them one year when I lived in the Central Valley. Didn’t start the tubers until June and harvested in January, long after the leaves had died off. I could have harvested earlier, but I didn’t have the time, and I figured they would store better in the ground than in my fridge. I got maybe 5 pounds from three 5 gallon tubs. Very low maintenance plants, but I would strongly recommend planting them in pots small enough to tip over and rinse off the dirt to harvest. The tubers are produced on runners and digging through freezing mud trying to figure out if the hard object you’re feeling is a rock or a tuber isn’t very fun.
They will probably do even better for you since your nights are much warmer later into the season. You don’t need that many tubers for a good crop. I started 3-4 per tub, but I think if they’re happy they will spread to fill the space given to them.
In early July, about a month after planting:
I got three sizes of tubers. Most were medium-sized. The small ones are a pain to peel.
These were my largest:
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Please post updates if you grow them out.
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We have some small markets, but I’ve never been. I’ll check them out. Thanks for the tip.
That seems like a good harvest. How well do they keep? I heard you can freeze them and they keep the crunch.
I didn’t try freezing them, but they kept for a couple months in sealed freezer bags in the fridge. They can be processed into starch for long-term storage as well, though I have not tried that either.
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Water chestnut pushing out its first shoots. Wasn’t the best time of year to start them due to pontential frost, but it should be fine. I have them in a 5 gallon bucket.
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It indeed was fine. I had to come back through and put fish tank rocks on top of the bulbs because they kept floating to the top. Originally, all the bulbs but one died. And that one filled the whole bucket up. So you don’t need alot of them to start. Planning on harvesting in late September/early October.
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For anyone that has harvested Water Chestnuts before, do you drain the water beforehand and let the plant die off? Most places say “wait till the plant die back from frost” but I started mine in December last year and they had no problems all winter. So I don’t imagine they are going to die from frost. Should removing the water and letting the soil dry out have a similar effect?
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You drain the water but don’t need to dry it out. The waterchesternut still grows and gets sweeter in the mud (like thick mud). If I remember correctly, water chesternuts are harvested in the winter, like January and February and before Chinese new year.
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Btw, water chestnut is grown majorly around Yangtze River area, like 8A or 8B zone. I am not sure it grows well in tropical area.
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I have tried a couple times to grow water chestnut here in WA. I didn’t know anything about it, just saw some sprouting at the asian market and bought some.
I put those in my fishtank. The snails had a hayday.
I tried again in a aquarium, all but two rotted. Of the two left- hung on for a long while but finally kicked the bucket.
I am pretty sure I tried in another situation and gave up when they kept dislodging and floating to the surface.
I tried again this year with six or so. Due to me continually forgetting to actually plant them… they have langushed in an aquarium sitting outside, with very little dirt… I found a drowned rat in the water last week… ONE chestnut LIVES.
Floating around that little tank…
I should give it some muck.
Before reading this thread I thought they would die come winter…
Aquarium rock helps keep them down. Otherwise they float around and are more suspectible to rot and cold. Thats how most of mine died, floating to the top, it got to low 40s outside, and they died.
The plants grow fine. Whether or not there will be tubers is a different story. They’ve been planted for 10 months now. We will see in a couple months. Thanks for the info on harvest though!
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Do you need me to collect information on water chestnut cultivation from Chinese websites?
No, unless its something you want to do. I pulled mine away from the irrigation, so now they are starting to dry out. Have to wait for the rainy season to truly end though. If they show no signs of dying back back mid-October, I will put them under my patio to dry out faster.