International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.4, 208-220 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 208 Feature Review Open Access Advancements in Cultivation and Post-Harvest Handling of Eleocharis dulcis Yue Zhu, Jinni Wu Aquatic Biology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding authors: jinni.wu@cuixi.org International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.4 doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0020 Received: 10 Jul., 2025 Accepted: 08 Aug., 2025 Published: 28 Aug., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Zhu and Wu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Zhu Y., and Wu J.N., 2025, Advancements in cultivation and post-harvest handling of Eleocharis dulcis, International Journal of Aquaculture, 15(4): 208-220 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0020) Abstract Eleocharis dulcis is an important aquatic vegetable. It is popular among consumers because of its crisp, sweet and delicious bulbs and has broad market prospects at home and abroad. In recent years, a large number of research has been carried out on improving the yield and quality of water chestnuts, including variety selection, breeding and seedling technology improvement, efficient cultivation management, green pest control, harvesting and processing mechanization, and storage and preservation. This study systematically reviews the botanical characteristics of water chestnuts and the current status of main plant varieties, and summarizes new technologies for rapid tissue breeding and healthy seedling cultivation. The cultivation strategies such as soil environment regulation, fertilizer and water management, dense planting and photoperiod regulation were discussed, and the impact of photoperiod on premature ripening of water chestnuts was analyzed using high-altitude areas in Yunnan as an example. Further, the main pests and diseases of water chestnuts and their occurrence patterns were explained, and green prevention and control strategies such as biopesticides, plant extracts, and rice rotation were introduced. Finally, we summarized and looked forward to the future development challenges such as regional planting, brand building, mechanization and intelligence, and organic planting certification in the water chestnut industry. Research believes that through the integrated application of good breeding and advanced cultivation and harvesting technologies, the yield and quality of water chestnuts can be significantly improved; but bottlenecks such as mechanization and disease prevention and control are still needed to be solved to achieve sustainable and high-quality development of the water chestnut industry. Keywords Water chestnut; Aquatic vegetables; Variety selection; Rapid organizational breeding; Green prevention and control; Storage and preservation 1 Introduction Water chestnuts (also known as horseshoe) belong to the perennial herb of the Cypress family. They are made of fat, tender, crisp and sweet underground bulbs. They are one of the important vegetable crops for traditional Chinese exports to earn foreign exchange. Water chestnuts are rich in nutrients and are rich in starch, dietary fiber, protein, polyphenols and other substances. They have medicinal value of clearing heat and detoxifying, moistening the lungs and relieving cough. In recent years, with the increase in people's demand for healthy diets and specialty vegetables, the quality of fresh water chestnut foods and deep-processed products have attracted widespread attention, and the market demand is strong. Currently, the water chestnut planting area in my country is about 50 000 hectares, and a regional planting pattern has been formed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places. Although the cultivation scale continues to expand, the development of the water chestnut industry also faces many problems and challenges: traditional local varieties have problems such as low reproduction coefficient and poor disease resistance, and it is urgently necessary to improve the yield and quality through variety improvement. The breeding method is backward; the cultivation management is extensive; the pest control pressure is high; the harvesting and processing efficiency are low; post-harvest cleaning and peeling are mostly manual operations, and the product is not commercialized. The above problems restrict the quality improvement and efficiency improvement of the water chestnut industry (Xue et al., 2010). In response to the above background and problems, this study focuses on the core goal of "improving the yield and quality of water chestnuts", and systematically reviews the research progress of water chestnuts in cultivation
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