Kitchen Garden Forum

Earlier this week we bought some of these from a fruit & veg market stall, and never having eaten them before, decided to give them a try by roasting them with a selection of other vegetables. Their texture is like a sweet floury potato and apparently they are also delicious made into chips. I'm wondering whether it's possible to grow them here in the UK as apparently their yields, compared with potatoes are nearly three times as great, which made me wonder whether they would be suitable for growing in potato sacks.

They are small root vegetable, also known around the world as Arbi, Taro, Nampi and Coco Yam and are used in Indian, Chinese and Caribbean cooking. I've seen them described as "small mounds of elephant dung" which didn't do them justice. They have fibrous brown skins prickled with hair, like coconuts and are also available in Tesco.

The internet doesn't provide much information. Has anybody ever tried growing them here or can provide information as to exactly HOW you grow them.

Hi Primrose,

I have never heard of these at all. I look forward to reading any other comments about them.

Scan from Vegetables by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix - bit big I'm afraid.



If You Google the Latin name Colocasia Esculenta from this article you'll find more information. This one might be interesting http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/Aroids/ ... ulenta.php If this isn't the thing you are looking for I can give you some more Latin names from an entry for Giant Taro.

Primrose

To grow these you need to make a move to somewhere in the tropics

Well it looks as if we'll have to buy them rather than try growing them as our climate obviously doesn't look warm enough. Incidentally we have now tried them.
Peeled & boiled until soft. Stripped away the inner hard core, deep fried the chunks until golden brown and ate sprinkled with salt.

They tasted not dissimilar to potato chips but sweeter. Apparently they can also be served sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon as a accompanyment to stewed fruit. I imagine the sweetness would serve as a nice foil to the tartness of apples, Our local fruit & veg stall sells quite a selection of these "ethnic" vegetables so we look forward to trying a few more over the coming weeks.

Let me refresh this old topic. Colocasia Esculenta, growing outdoor, that's how it looks now:



I think it's very nice looking plant, very decorative. Also, important that plant is eatable, so I'm goint to dig it out in the autumn to get eatable tubers. I have 15 plants similar to the one shown above, so I'm expecting to get some bulbs ready to eat.

And here I was going to say wait for gaur500 & Elmigo to read & post & here you have it!

Small tip: Colocasia Esculenta also grows very well indoor. So you can try if you can get tuber. It grows very fast indoor. It's easy, no direct sunlight, room temperature and much water are the only requirements

New leaves arrived:



Typically old leaves die and every new leaf is bigger than older one.

Some more pictures:

It grows like crazy:


Look how large leaves it creates.

I recorded short movie to show how it grows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYgMrgxhQMI

Amazing gaur500 that is some growth! I was well distracted with your pristine nails though... Mine have never looked like that for decades!

So, unlike me, you are true gardener then

Your eddoe plants look fantastic. Can I ask when you started them and planted them outside? I’m new to gardening and as my family eat eddoes I wanted to try them. I had planned to start them indoors in February/March and then move them outside. Does this sound like a good plan?