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Here's How A Wai San Plant Looks Like




Wai san plant that I grew from fresh wai san 

This is a wai san plant. I didn't even know I could grow them here in Malaysia. And I grew them by accident! (Wrote about them a while back too).

Below is a fresh wai san tuber. I've always bought this in my Lip Sin market. Used it for soups.

Fresh wai san root 


Fresh wai san tuber can keep for a few weeks in the fridge. Just make sure you wrap it in some newspaper and put it into a plastic bag.

Sometimes though I forget I have wai san.

After a month or so, I get icky about using the old wai san lying about in my fridge.

As you know I never throw organic stuff that's edible away. I just turn them into compost.

So I chucked the old wai san into my compost pot. I figured it will disintegrate and become compost after a month or so.

But imagine my surprise when I started digging up the compost. The wai san was alive and growing!

It sprouted new roots.

I was feeling adventurous so I decided to give it a new life. Planted it into a pot. Kept it in the shade and then the leaves started growing too.

This took about 2-3 weeks.

Then some snails or maybe grasshopper started chewing on the wai san leaves. It ended up bereft of leaves and bald as a chicken.

Still it did not die.

So now it's recovering. Smaller leaves are coming back.


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