Chinese Water Chestnut

[hiven]

We went to an Oriental supermarkt yesterday and I bought some Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis Dulcis).
It taste delicious, very cryspy and sweet. The corms look viable (but dormant). Is it possible to grow it ?
After doing some research, it said that the corm can be pregerminated before planting to cope a short summer but again, we don't have 220 frost free days . When would it be a good time to pregerminate them and how ?

Wikipedia has some brief info (plus photo) about it : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleocharis_dulcis
organicgardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/growing_chinese_water_chestnuts

Could any one shed some light ? or this just won't work ?
many thanks .

[orflo]

This needs a very long season , I tried it once and got nothing...
They're grown in regions where rice is grown, and there's a form of crop rotation between the rice and the eleocharis. If you have a greenhouse and can grow rice in it (and want to sacrifice some space...) you could try growing it in some sort of closed plastic tub, but it really needs a 2006 summer...
Another water chestnut is trapa natans, and this is easier to grow, it needs also a bit of warmth, but it isn't as demanding as the eleocharis, or trapa bicornis, which is the oriental alternative for natans (which is in fact European), and therefore needs (again) more warmth and a longer season (I've never tried this bicornis, but natans does reasonably well in a tub, don't expect high crops though)
books.google.com/books?id=Fo087ZxohA4C&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=trapa+bicornis&source=bl&ots=7SSEWHOhW-&sig=vQWuxTYEtyfU3XOERGiyoDQjA3w&hl=nl&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

[hiven]

Thanks Frank, I knew it will be diificult from the start as we don't have the continuous 220 fronst free days. I will try a couple next year in a tub and see what happen. Will definitely not list it as our future pond plant. Perhaps Lotus will be a much better plant for a pond .