I like a good experiment and Chinese water chestnuts are a good subject for one. They are grown in a lot of different ways and I want to find a method of growing them that is simple and effective. Whether I continue growing them in the future will depend on how my harvest goes and whether I decide they are worth the effort for the food value they provide. They sure have a great texture though...
The five methods I'm trying are:
1. Placing a plastic lining under a bed;
2. Burying a large bowl under a bed;
3. Burying a patch of sphagnum moss under a bed;
4. A broccoli box that acts like a giant self-watering pot; and
5. Just treat them like a normal garden plant.
When I first bought the corms I was only going to try a couple of methods but I got carried away. Some people I spoke with about these plants said they grew theirs in a pot fully submerged in a pond. I'm against that because nutrients would leach out of the soil in the pot. Similarly in something like an old flooded bath tub you'd lose nutrients when it rains.
I selected four methods that should ensure the ground where I'm planting corms will be wetter than usual. The last is seeing what happens if I just treat them like a normal garden plant – I mean, why go to extra trouble if they will just grow anywhere? Perhaps unfortunately the last method got the weakest-looking plant.
At the moment I'm on a three day watering cycle until the weather warms up. Then I'll revert to every two days.
I've been able to set up a poll on the channel's Community tab for – “Which method do you think will be the most productive?” I could also do a “which one/ones do you think will die?” but one poll is quite enough.
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00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Planting corms in pots
2:08 – 1 month update
2:36 – Method 1 prep
5:21 – Method 2 prep
7:59 – Method 3 prep
9:55 – Method 4 prep and what a Ute is
13:47 – Rundown of 1-4, garden mess
15:40 – Method 5 prep
17:14 – The plan from here
18:11 – Dice determine which plant goes where
20:06 – Checking soil moisture levels
22:55 – Planting out
25:25 – Outro and quiz
