Livingseeds is the first seed company supplying true Water Chestnut starter material to the gardening public. This ancient crop is one of the most productive food plants on Earth. There is a huge industry in Asia supplying fresh and canned Water Chestnuts for the public.

The tubers of the plant are visually very similar to true chestnuts, and have a sweet, coconut like taste and texture.

It is an aquatic plant and needs to be grown in soil saturated with water. It can be grown in depths up to about 5cm of water. The actual container though can be up to a meter deep.
It does not, however, need running water. It can be grown in soil in a sealed bath as shown in the photograph. One will get many kilograms of tubers out of a setup as shown. The bath is full of soil and only needs to be topped up with water from time to time. Seal the plug into the setup with silicone glue. Tubers are extremely popular in Chinese cuisine, and keep their crunchy texture when cooked. They can also be used as a potato substitute, adding a sweet, coconut like taste to any meal. Plant the tubers as soon as you receive them. They need to “rest” in wet soil.

Tubers will emerge as water warms up in very early spring depending on your area of the country.

Plant is a small sedge, and spreads like a grass. The more surface area the plant has to spread during summer, the more tubers are formed.

One only has to plant 3 chestnuts to an old bath to get a full crop at the end of a season.

Crop is ready to harvest at the end of the season when foliage dies down. Wash tubers/”nuts” well but harvest only as needed. Tubers do not keep well outside of wet soil. Nuts can be eaten raw, boiled, roasted, stir-fried etc.

Plant requires full sun to perform well.

Cultivation:

Plants grow very fast and produce tight mats of reed-like growth on top of a ‘nest’ of tubers. Tubers are formed in clusters and can be found from just beneath the surface quite deep in the substrate. Can survive freezing temperatures in soil.

Qty: 3 tubers packed in soil