THE CHINESE WATER GARDEN - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 171

Appearance
Water chestnuts grow as erect clumps of green quills; the “leaves” are actually narrow
tubular stems and grow to 3 feet tall. Though they look like a grass, they're in the sedge
family; they and other Eleocharis species are called water rushes. Water chestnuts are
not, of course, true nuts but edible roots (technically corms) with a distinctly nutty fla-
vor, especially when freshly gathered.
The “chestnuts” form in the mud at the base of the stems. When fully mature,
they're about the size of a walnut. They're covered with a tough brown skin.
How to Grow
Getting started. Water chestnuts require full sun and fairly rich soil to produce a decent
crop. They are bog plants, so their containers should be set shallowly in your water con-
tainer. The water surface should stand no more than 3 to 5 inches above the soil surface.
Individual planters can range in size from 7 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep to
20 inches in diameter and 10 inches deep, depending on how many plants you want to
grow and what else you want to grow with them. A 25-gallon container will produce
about 30 to 40 mature chestnuts; smaller containers will produce proportionately fewer.
How to Harvest
Water chestnuts mature in about six months but can be gathered much sooner if your
growing season is not that long, or if you'll settle for smaller “nuts.”
Winter Storage
In climates where roots would freeze under water, they must be stored over winter. Re-
move the roots from the water (in their containers) and store in a cool, moist, shady
place where they won't freeze. Lay the pots on their sides. Check every so often to be
sure the soil has not dried out.
DID YOU KNOW?
You may have heard that water chestnuts are an invasive plant clogging lakes and other waterways
throughout the eastern United States. Fortunately, that's an unrelated plant, though it shares the same
common name. The troublesome one is the European water chestnut ( Trapa nutans ), a plant with rosettes
of triangular leaves that float on the water.