Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-274
Water Chestnut
Eleocharis dulcis
Water Chestnut produces a sweet, crisp corm that stays crunchy even cooked, which is why it holds up in a stir-fry - grown in a flooded cell and harvested by draining it after the tops die back each autumn. It is one of the few crops that actually wants a long hot summer rather than merely tolerating one, since its ideal leaf-growing temperature runs right through the hottest part of the season. Beyond food, it is one of the best plants for cleaning greywater or pond water - it strips nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals from the water column and raises dissolved oxygen, so a single planted cell can double as a water-treatment feature and a food crop. Watch the name: "water chestnut" also names an unrelated, invasive floating plant, so buy this one by its scientific name or as corms from a food supplier, never from an aquatic nursery by common name alone.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 6.5–7.2
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–36 in
- Mature spread
- 12–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 12 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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