Eddo (Elephants Ears, Colocasia ?)

Sirius , even tesco sell eddos , they have the asian veg shelf ...

PeterS , If you want to grow from pips , this are simple veg that can be brough at Tesco , I live in an asian area , so get more fresh food variety , but look at those i personally tryed all.
turmeric.

lemon grass (start them in water)

galangal


nut grass.

air potatoe



air potatoes are sold as yam

 

not finished yet.
jerusalem articoke

sweet potatoes

water chestnut

rice

maranta

sechium (?) not sure about the name , but cold hardy and easy to start in water

sugar cane (easy to start but impossible to keep)

plus you got all the fruit and seeds available ...
do you need any more tropical?

 

It was a tuber Peter next to the beetroot.

Morrisons have started selling a few Asian veg around here now, I was tempted to try a few others but .......... I dont have the space, and now the summer has turned out like it has, I'm kind of looking forward to winter and perhaps a few dry days.

 

Pete , I still remember on an old post that you bough 2 eddos and didn`t know why!!! it does look exotic and if you don`t want to mess with the overwinter just eat them , they are actuallt really tasty , make a mash or just fry , they are actually poisonous if eated raw.
this is my maranta , didn`t do great this year , the galangale are just about to come out , not the greates summer to grow tropical edible.

in case anyone wander where to get them , asian (as chinese/thai) are selling a mix pack of roots called galangale used for make fresh curry.

they look like those , but usually they are all mixed.

 

Thats right Sal,
And it was you that suggested I buy them.

They are good looking plants, but I was hoping to plant them out, up till now they are still greenhouse bound.

I dont think I will try eating them.
I might not cook them long enough.

 

Plant them outdoor they are really tough , they will be at them best by the end of September , a great combination with cannas , but this years they didn`t do well both of them ..

 

My Cannas have not moved since I planted them out in June.
So I cant see the point in planting these out, they might be tough, but if they dont grow there is no point.

 

Sal,

Are those "air pototoe" / yams not Dioscorea bulbifera?

I have had them in the past. The seem to do well for a year or two but after going dormant in autumn, fail to come up again.

 

Sirius , you need to looking for the japanese/chinese yam , the caribbean yam or indian will die ...saying that I`ve lost mine due of the extreme rain , but actually Pete gave me few of his air potatoes from Kent and they are growing well , the one I had was from France .
Another failure I had this year was the cassava , finally started to rooting but them start to rotting , I think it`s a dry lover plant and need worm .
The chinese yam look like this

caribbean yam

 

Sal - that's a wonderful answer - thank you so much. I think rice would do very well here. Some of the others I have never heard of. And I always thought of Maranta as a plant - never an edible. I will have to go in search of these.

Ginger is the only thing I have grown from the supermarket. It survived for a couple of years, but I think that as it wasn't going to flower - it got recycled.

Thanks Pete - Morrisons is my local supermarket, so I will have to have a good look round next time. By the way your yam (Dioscorea) is growing well. The larger one is somewhere in the border (I hope - but I am not quite sure exactly where), however I left the smaller one outside in a pot over the winter and its doing fine.

Its reassuring but sad to hear that your Cannas haven't moved - nor have mine.

 

Neither have mine...

Great pics Sal, amazing just how many things you can grow from the supermarket really...

 

Sal,
Where do you get the Chinese Yams from?

 

Sirius that sound stupid but from the Chinese shop I can look to get you one , or if you wait there should be some air potatoes in September.
There is one in Bedford , she will get fresh veg on order or usually there is a nice shop in Northampton ..but both get them veg from a Luton supplier wich is more close to you then me.
Bough my first lotus , years ago from a japanise supplier in London , then find out that actually japanese have started to grow vegetable in UK as well ......most interesting thing , Japanese ginger it`s actually hardy in UK.
Alpinia japonica

 

Sal,
That would be fantastic, if you could get me one. (will continue re the pm I sent you).

I once went into a chinese medicine shop asking for plants. You should have seen the look I got! It's almost asif I was asking the lady for......

 

Inspired by this thread I went to Morrisons today to a section that I had previously just walked past. And I haven't stopped chuckling since, because I bought 14 tubers/rhizomes for the huge sum of £4.01, and nearly half of that was for the big green thing. I think a garden centre would have charged a bit more.


What I bought was:-

Eddoes - Colocasia esculenta (top left). This is really what I wanted. But I couldn't resist buying some more items.

Krachai - Boesenbergia rotunda ? (top right). I gather - this is a member of the ginger family, perennial, and with a life cycle of about 5 months.

Arbi - Colacasia esculenta ? (middle left). This seems to be another variety.

Water chestnuts - Eleocharis dulcis (middle right). I have read that you can plant these shallowly in a pot of rich clay soil, and when the shoots are about 6 to 12 inches high transplant them into a pond or tub of soil and water.

Galangal - Alpina officinarum ? (bottom left). This seems to be a member of the ginger family from China that needs good drainage. Its supposedly a hallucinogen and an aphrodisiac.

Green mooli - Raphanus sativus (bottom right). This seems to be a jolly fat green giant radish from Korea. This one has some green leaf shoots - but what do you do with it?

I am really not sure of the names or the details - so please help me out. None of the first five had obvious shoots - so I am not sure if they will grow or not. The last one had some small green leaves at one end - but if its a radish, will it grow? or has it just finished its life's work?

There were a few other things there - Tumeric, Salsify, Ginger, and Lotus root (which was very big and quite expensive).

Any hints on growing these would be very welcome.