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Dave Meikle
03-12-2014, 08:29 AM
I picked one up at the local grocery. Ive heard they are similar to Elephant ear or taro.Has anyone tried growing this?Dave.

Kat2
03-12-2014, 10:11 AM
I have not too successfully but that was in Ohio. I believe it can become invasive in warmer climates.

raygrogan
03-12-2014, 05:36 PM
I grow lots of it - has a very tasty leaf (cooked with salt water to get rid of itch) and a pretty good corm. Pix at https://picasaweb.google.com/114685571384513740781/AraimoSatoimoIsAGoodTaro?noredirect=1#

Iunepeace
06-05-2014, 09:20 AM
Thanks for feedback; can anyone confirm if eddoe is actually different from taro? It is a local starch staple here and also grown locally in some gardens (though not on the same level as bananas and mangoes). I like the visual appeal of the plant and potential harvest and am interested in growing some myself but am not sure what to get whether eddoe, taro etc. Thanks in advance :D

raygrogan
06-05-2014, 12:34 PM
The diffs are subtle - visually the best way to tell the difference is shown here https://picasaweb.google.com/114685571384513740781/AraimoSatoimoIsAGoodTaro?noredirect=1#5526158289992313954

Cooking wise the main corms are treated the same, but the dormant ones have far less "itch" and can be nuked like a potato, stir-fried, etc. (The flavor and texture is more watery.)

Growing wise the satoimo types are very well suited to "bunch" growing and harvesting (where you just yank out a couple of whole plants instead of the turnover routine).

Iunepeace
06-05-2014, 02:52 PM
Thanks for the reply Mr. Grogan. I did a lot more research into the differences after my post and there seems be a generally agreed upon line of differentiation:

1. Both taro and eddoe come from Colocasia esculenta.

2. Taro is Colocasia esculenta v. esculenta, while Eddoe is Colocasia esculenta v. antiquorum.

3. Within these broad classifications there lots of different varieties of both :)

And my GOODNESS, I really can't get over the scope of your visual historybook of your gardening! I've spent at least 2 or 3 hours today just scrolling through the gardening and cooking pictures in your Picasa Web Album alone (lovely to see your fam pop up too). Thanks again for taking the time out to make pictorial records of all those over the years and being nice enough to put them up for extremely inexperienced aspiring garderners like myself to glean from; I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Also does the heart good to follow a successful gardening journey such as you are undertaking. :D

I think we're fairly limited to growing mostly just the antiquorum (eddoe) variety over here since I haven't found anything else in the local markets, but I'm fine with using those and was planning on trying a container method like you previously employed. Would those be okay in [submerged] buckets? Or is that the type confined to upland growing methods vs wetland?

raygrogan
06-05-2014, 03:02 PM
Thanks for compliments and good questions. The eddoe type does fine underwater as long as you let it sprout first - all taro needs a "snorkel" for air. A dormant eddoe will take too long to grow that sprout and die / rot underwater. So I grow mine in paper cups or small pots until they are say 6" or taller, then put in water.

Iunepeace
06-05-2014, 03:25 PM
Well thank you for the extensive repertoire of gardening knowledge and easy-to-follow advice. I will sprout it first in a small pot and then transfer before I try the underwater methods then; the neighbours across the street from us have bought the plot next to theirs (the one directly in front of my house), cleared the whole thing down, and plant an array of tropicals such as sugar cane, bananas, and eddoe. It's quite something driving past the hills of dirt they've clumped together around the property which have huge eddoe growing on them. I guess the plants do well when grown in either wetland or upland conditions.

I realize my linguistic expositions are taking up a bit of the thread so I've pm'ed you the rest of my queries :)